In these silences, something may rise
by Kezzer
Summary: The city of Townsville has had a time of peace, its villains defeated and its Heroes leading nearly normal lives. But in the silence something from the past rises, and this time the girls can not stop it. (update: final chapter and authors notes added)
1. Homecoming

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 1

Home coming 

(I do not own the Power Puff Girls and its associated characters.)

The city of Townsville, a city that has been through many dark times because of the acts of super villains and monsters alike. To some there seemed to be no hope left, that they were doomed to live in a city slowly delving deeper and deeper into darkness. But these days came to an end as the light of super heroes finally came, not Superman, Green Lantern, Spiderman or any of these other well known heroes but a team of three special little girls. The Power Puff Girls, created by accident when Professor Utonium mixed Chemical X with one of his experiments. These three have fought the evil of Townsville for over two years, taking down monsters and foiling even the greatest plots from some of the most evil forces in the world. However these times are over, the city has now finally been given some true protection by its government. Its pitiful excuse of a Mayor finally got around to signing proposition 24601, also known as 'do the crime do the time' proposition.

The proposition now passed meant that the ridiculously small sentences criminals were given have finally been replaced with more fitting punishments. A prison has been built by the world's greatest minds, one that no super villain can ever escape from. And the proposition allowed the building of a force field that was placed around Monster Island, thus ending the almost constant attacks.

All this occurred six months ago, since then even the incompetent police force has been able to keep up with the petty crime of the city. The heroes are no longer needed and have become normal(ish) girls. Moving on to Pokey Oaks Elementary school and enjoying the time of peace. But this is time could never last, for as long as there are heroes there are always rogues, for there is always a balance which comes with a heavy price.

* * *

Mayor J Mayor is a small man in many respects, but one with a good and kind heart. Unfortunately this is not enough to run a city so nearly everything relies on a single woman, Miss Bellum.

'Mayor please pay attention to me for just a moment...' Miss Bellum had been waiting patiently for nearly half an hour now, holding on to the days agenda while the Mayor played with his favourite gadget.

'One moment please Miss Bellum, this is very important work.' The Mayor did not even take his eyes away while he watched the pickle jar slowly twist round in the machine before the lid popped of letting out the strong smell of the Mayors much-loved food. 'Look at that, opened it all by its self Miss Bellum! Why I don't know what I did before I bought this jar opener.'

'Sir you have had it for over three months now, we all know perfectly well what it does. And before you bought it you called the Power Puff Girls to open the jars.'

'Power Puff girls... err... who are they?' The Mayor asked perplexed and confused as he always was, stuffing pickles into his mouth at an alarming rate.

'The Power Puff Girls sir, they were the cities heroes for over two years, they saved the day, and not to mention your life, countless times! How could you forget about them?'

'Oh the Power Puff Girls!' The mayor said as he wolfed down the last of his pickles. 'Nice Girls, used to save the day and open my pickle jars you know?'

'Yes sir I know about that, now if we could please...' Miss Bellum was cut off as the Mayor pulled out another fresh jar of pickles.

'But now I have this pickle jar opener, let me show you how it works!' Miss Bellum just slapped her face in frustration; this had been going on for so long she had all most given up hope on ever telling him what he was meant to do that day. Not that it mattered because in the end she would have to do it all anyway.

It was just as the pickle jar opener opened its last jar that the Mayor's office was stormed. Not a soul had noticed as three strangers had managed to walk right past the inept guards and inadequate security measures. They were not even challenged until they reach the Mayors office door, and even then it was only a lowly office worker.

'Excuse me sirs but the Mayor is in a meeting right now and can not be disturbed, if you wish to wait out here until he is available please.' The worker was a small man, not even as tall as the three who wanted to go and see the Mayor, yet he had confidence in the power of his authority. It was a shame authority meant nothing to these three, very little did matter to them in fact.

'We have an appointment to see him, one we made two years ago.' Said the one who stood at the front of the three without even looking at the man who tried to stop them.

'Two years ago! Well if you will just give me your names I can go and...' He never got to finish his sentence; his last thoughts on this earth were that it would be such a pain to go through the records for the last two years for the appointment these three had made. He never felt a thing as a red hot beam of blue light went right through his head turning his face in to black ash. His corpse stood still for only a few moments and then fell down to the floor where the head exploded into a pile of dust.

The three intruders now had nothing in their way as they opened the doors just in time to hear the chime of the pickle jar opener. The Mayor and Miss Bellum both looked up to see the three walking into the office, but could not see the smouldering remains of the office worker as the door closed behind the trespassers.

'Excuse me but children are not allowed back here, if you are with the tour please go back to the group, I will show you the way if you're lost.' Miss Bellum at first got up to show the three young ones the way out but stopped in her tracks when the leader spoke.

'We are here to talk to the Mayor, sit down and shut up' The voice was one she remembered, one that came from the darkest hour of Townsville.

'Mayor we have to call...' These three were making a habit of stopping people in mid sentence, this time the attack came from the one on the left. A quick hit to the back of the head was enough to send Miss Bellum down to the floor with a nerve shattering thud, blood slowly seeping into the carpet from a broken nose.

'I told her to sit down and shut up.' The leader said as he made a ruthless kick to the un-conscious woman's ribs. The Mayor as I said was an idiot but he did have a good heart, he instantly raced over to Miss Bellum and tried to protect her with his small body.

'Monster, attacking Miss Bellum like that, when I talk to your parents you will be in for such a spanking.' The mayor was red with rage; he had not been like this since some one told him he was an idiot.

'Old man if you speak again without my permission I will rip out her neck with my bare hands.' The leader spoke with no emotion in his voice, the one on his left put on an evil smirk at the idea.

'Lets do it any way; we don't need her to control the old fool.' He said as he started towards the Mayor in a threatening manner. The little man cringed with fear as a hand reached out for Miss Bellum's neck, but it was stopped by the leaders' hand.

'Later we can have fun with the idiots; right now we have bigger fish to fry.' The leader held his subordinate's hand for a moment more then let him take a step back away from Miss Bellum. 'Call the Power Puff Girls; tell them to come here right away and nothing else.'

'No way, I would never lead the Girls into a trap!' Mayor Mayor shook his fist angrily at the three but went back to cowering when the one on the left stepped forward again.

'If you do not obey me then I will let these two play with you and the woman, then to lure those girls out we will start slaughtering the morons who live in this wretched excuse for a city.'

'Who are you monsters!?' The mayor asked as he stopped cowering and seemed to resign to his fate.

'Instruments of destruction' The leader said.

'Tools of foul play.' The one who wanted to kill Miss Bellum said.

'The final interruption.' The one who killed the office worker outside finally said.

'Now make the call old man.' The leader pointed at the hotline phone, now covered in dust and cobwebs from the lack of use over the months. The Mayor gave one last look at Miss Bellum and then started to slowly and sadly walk towards his hotline phone.

* * *

The Utonium home has now become a place close to sane, the Professor having time to not only invent but to play with his girls. But today the Girls were hard at work with their homework. Before the great peace the girls had been top of their classes able to get away with missing classes and homework but now all excuses were gone, some were coping better then others.

'Maths is so stupid.' Buttercup sat on the floor cross-legged staring at a blank bit of paper; she had been doing this for twenty minutes just unable to put pen down and get to work. She was not bad at maths, she just hated working on it was all and now was struggling to start work. Looking round she saw Blossom lying on her stomach and working so fast her hand was nearly a blur, she would finish in no time at that rate. Buttercup decided to try and see if she could somehow get out of this math work, either get Blossom to do it or copy from her. She floated gently over her sister putting on her most friendly voice.

'Oh Blossom my favourite sister in the whole wild world.' Without even taking her eyes off the page Blossom responded to Buttercup.

'I am not going to do your homework for you Buttercup.' Buttercup slumped and then stuck her tongue out at Blossom making sure to curl it as much as she could, knowing it was something Blossom could not do. With her first choice denied Buttercup tried to talk to Bubbles instead.

'Oh Bubbles...' Bubbles was sitting on the couch giggling as she played around with the calculator. When Buttercup got close enough she showed her the upside down calculator.

'Look I spelt "hello" on my calculator!' Buttercup just shakes her head as she sees Bubbles has forgotten that it needs to be put in backwards and has spelt OLLEH instead.

'On second thought forget it; I am better off doing this on my own.' She sat back down and went back to just looking at her blank page. 'Maybe if I am lucky the Mayor will call and I can get out of this. I could do with a good fight.'

'Oh come on Buttercup the hotline has not rung since the Mayor bought that pickle jar opener.' Blossom finally looked up from her homework which was very nearly done. There is absolutely no chance what so ever that phone will ring now...' The second she said that they could hear the hotline ringing from upstairs. The girls all looked in the direction of their room with faces of disbelief. The phone had not rung in months, and even then it had been the mayor been stupid, since his jar opener arrived Miss Bellum had made him promise only to use the hotline in a real emergency.

'Girls is that the hotline?' The professor asked as he walked into the room from his downstairs laboratory He had no sooner asked when three beams of coloured light shot past him and into the Power Puff's room. Professor Utonium span round from the force and fell back down the stairs to his lab, fortunately not hurt by some flukeish luck he seemed to have.

Upstairs Blossom as usual was the first to grab the hotline phone, causing a small cloud of dust to come up in her face. After a few light coughs she put the receiver to her ear and spoke into to phone.

'Power Puff Girls, what's the problem Mayor?' Blossom was then bombarded by the Mayors frantic voice.

'Blossomyouhavegottogethererealquickiaminbigtroubleandstuff!' He just spat it all out like one word and in a single breath.

'Mayor please slow down, I can't understand what you are saying when you talk like that.' Blossom had held the phone at arms length after the Mayor had screamed so loudly into it, but now risked putting it close again.

'Blossom, you have to get here really quick. There's no time to explain, just be at my office as soon as you can!' The mayor said more slowly and calmly, but the panic and fear still resonated in every word he said.

'We will be right there Mayor!' Blossom placed the phone back on its cradle before she turned to her sisters.

'What's up Blossom?' Bubbles asked.

'Did the Mayor want to show us his pickle jar opener again?' Buttercup said with a look of distaste on her face.

'No Buttercup, this sounded really serious this time.' Buttercup just shrugged at the idea that Mayor J. Mayor could be serious. 'He said we had to go to his office right away, come on girls lets go!' And without another word Blossom shot out of her window in a flash of pink light.

'Wait for me Blossom!' Bubbles yelled just before she vanished in a beam of blue light.

'I still say it going to turn out to be nothing.' Buttercup said, as she stood alone in the room before she went after her sisters.

* * *

The three who had assaulted the Mayors office now stood on one of Townsville's many skyscrapers, looking down on the streets which lead to the City hall.

'I can seem them coming.' Said the one who wore a blue denim vest with a black stripe round it.

'They will finally get what they deserve.' This was from the one in a baggy green sweatshirt also with a black stripe around it.

'All the training comes down to this, one my signal we attack.' This was from the red headed leader who wore a red baseball cap and a red leather jacket that also had a black stripe around it.

* * *

The Power Puff Girls had been flying at top speed for the Mayors office and had been too focused to see their attackers until it was too late. There were six red beams like the girls eye beams, each hitting a Power Puff Girl in the back. The Girls hit the ground skidding along the hard tarmac. When they finally came to a stop they were smouldering, both figuratively and literary.

'Hey who did that!?' Bubbles asked as she rubbed her sore back.

'Come out and show yourselves so I can kick your butts!' Buttercup shouted as she span round looking all over for who had dared use a sneaky move on her.

'Over here toots.' The voice came from behind the three girls, who span round as one to see who had ambushed them. Standing there were three young boys the same age as the Power Puff Girls, thee boys who had battled the girls once before and nearly ended their lives. They were the Rowdy Ruff Boys, sworn enemies of the Power Puff Girls and long thought as dead. They are a little older; in new clothes and they have longer hair then before but there is no doubt that it's them.

'No way, you guys are dead!' Blossom said in disbelief as she looked at her counterpart, the leader of the Rowdy Ruff's, Brick.

'We got better.' Butch, the green Ruff, said with a sly smirk crossing his face and his arms been crossed.

'Well I feel a relapse coming on!' Buttercup yelled out as she blindly charged Butch with the intent to rub the smirk off his face permanently. Butch has a second to move out the way or at least put up some sort of block, instead he just stands there with out even flinching. The full force of Buttercup's punch hits Butch right in the chin making a loud smack echo round the streets. Butch's head snaps back and he is sent back a few steps by the force of the blow. For a moment he holds there with his head bent back as far as it could go while Buttercup smiled thinking she had finished him. Then effortlessly Butch moves back into his same position, the smirk now even bigger and with no signs of damage.

'No way...' Buttercup could not understand how Butch had managed to take her hit like it was almost nothing; she had put everything she had into that single charge.

'Got anything else to show us, or are you going to run home like sissies?' Boomer asked the girls as Buttercup jumped back away from Butch and to regroup with her sisters.

'Girls!' The three girls gathered together in a huddle as Blossom tried to make some sort of strategy. 'We have to work together on this one, remember these guys are as strong as we are.'

'We are stronger then you girls could ever dream of.' Brick said as he listened into the girls. 'Go on and try anything you like, we can take it.'

'Ok let's try attack pattern Omega five!' Blossom ordered, trusting her sisters to follow her without question. The attack started as a quick rush at the three boys who did not even flinch as they saw the Power Puff Girls coming. Then just before they hit them the girls pulled up sharply going high into the sky, this move surprised the three boys as they had expected a head on attack. They looked up in time to see the girls were combining their attack power, holding hands while building up all their energy.

'Mega-blast!' The girls shouted out as one before firing a huge beam of energy at the three Rowdy Ruffs. The energy hit the ground dead on and exploded in a huge dome of light which destroyed half the street with it. When the smoke had blown away all that could be seen was a huge crater where the three boys had been standing.

'Hah yes we did it!' Buttercup yelled as she punched the air with one hand, and then started to do a little victory dance.

'Yeah we beat them.' Bubbles said as happy as she ever was, but when she turned to Blossom her smiles faulted a little. Blossom was not celebrating but seemed to be searching from something on the ground.

'That was almost too easy.' Buttercup stopped dancing around and just floated there with her hands back behind her head. 'Well now they're dead we can go home.' She was about to fly off when Blossom spoke up for the first time since the attack.

'I wouldn't be so sure Buttercup. They have taken much more then this before and come back from it, heck they somehow survived been blown up!' She was now looking for any remains of the three boys but could find nothing, no clothes remains and no snips, snails and puppy dog tails.

'Looking for us girls?' A voice came from above them, they all looked to see it was Boomer hovering high in the air with his three brothers. They are completely unharmed and still in their cocky positions staring down at the girls.

'They must have dodged the Mega-blast at the last possible moment!' Blossom was astounded by the thought they could have moved so quickly, the blast had moved at the speed of light after all.

'You girls gave us a better fight the first time round, you've gotten soft over the years.' Butch sneered from on high, the insult only really affecting Buttercup who was close to making another idiotic charge at them. Blossom saved her from another humiliation by grabbing her leg as she started to fly up at the boys.

'We can't beat them like this, they are stronger then we are.' Blossom said keeping a tight grip on her sister's leg.

'What do you suggest oh fearless leader?' Buttercup said with a voice filled with venom. 'That we go home and hide under our beds?'

'That sounds like a good plan to me...' Bubbles said quietly, half joking and half serious.

'Buttercup, don't you remember how we beat them last time?' Blossom finally let go of Buttercup's leg and let her land once more.

'Oh you better not be thinking what I think you are.' Buttercup felt her stomach churn as she remembered how she had beaten Butch the first time the rowdy's had shown up.

'Oh I want the blond, he's cute!' Bubbles said cheerily looking up at Boomer who reacted like he had been punched in the mouth.

'Hey! I am now cute!' Boomer yelled down shaking his fist at the girls, the first to break the cool exterior the boys had shown since arriving. Brick made a quick elbow to his side and Boomer remembered himself, returning to his place and pose.

'It's our only chance, let's go!' Blossoms said as she put on her cutest face, the same one she had used the first time the boys had been defeated. Bubbles followed after her putting on the same expression. Buttercup stayed where she was looking angry as she muttered curse under her breath before she went after her two sisters.

As the girls got closer Butch and Boomer became more and more agitated, trying to keep up the cool look been more of a struggle the closer the three girls got to them. Brick looked at them with mild contempt and disgust; he hated to see weakness in his siblings especially after all they had been through.

'Steady boys, this is the moment we have been training for so don't wuss out on me now.' Brick said out of the corner of his mouth just before the girls came up to them. Bubbles planted a kiss on Boomer's cheek, Buttercup forced herself to put a kiss on Butch's cheek and then Blossom kissed Brick. She held there for a second waiting for the explosive reaction but nothing happened. She opened her eyes and looked up to see Brick with a smile on his face. He had to force the smile as he could feel his skin crawl just like the first kiss he had been given, but this time he was in no danger of exploding.

'Sorry but I don't kiss on a first date, you never know what cooties you might catch.' Brick then kicked the astonished Blossom in the gut with all his force sending the Power Puff away from him in a hurry. This was followed by Boomer punching Bubbles in the face and then Butch doing the same to Buttercup.

'I don't get it, it worked last time.' Blossom said holding her aching stomach which was already starting to heal thanks to her powers.

'What do you think we have been doing all this time?' Brick said as he used the back of his hand to slowly wipe off where Blossom had kissed him. He was honestly revolted at Blossom, she was meant to be his equal and she could not figure this out.

'Unlike you Girls who were braiding each others hair and putting on makeup we have been preparing for this fight every single day.' Butch said while he was madly cleaning his face with both hands.

'We put ourselves into training, ever since you defeated us, with our single goal of becoming invisible.' Boomer said as he to madly cleaned himself with his hands, unable to get the wretched feeling of the kiss of his skin.

'Not only are we now stronger and faster then you, we are immune to your deadly kisses. That training was the worst but now we are stronger for it.' Brick finished trying to clean the lingering kiss of his face, and finally moved out of his relaxed position and into an attacking one. 'Now it's our turn to play, this time it will be my game and my rules. The only rule been the Power Puff Girls can't win!' As he said this his two brothers also moved into an attacking stance, never taking their eyes off the Power Puff Girls.

'Tare them apart!' The three boys yelled out together before they charged the girls with a downward punch. Each boy hit their female counterpart with the devastating punches sending their bodies hurtling back to earth. The force of the blows caused the Girls to dig huge trenches in the road before they each crashed head first into large buildings which collapsed on top of them. The boys gave them no time and no mercy, they were not held back by weakness such as guilt and fair play. Brick attacked the building where Blossom had crashed; he took a deep breath in then sent out a huge fire ball from his mouth. The flaming ball rolled across the ground before it exploded on contact with the remains of the skyscraper Blossom was in.

Boomer slammed his hands together like he was clapping for a show; each time he did a large wave of sound flew out from him in sonic booms. The waves barraged the rubble Bubbles was somewhere in, each one causing the rocks to be pulverised even further. To finish it off he smashed his hands in to the ground sending a shock wave across the ground which pulverised everything in its way until it hit what little remained of the debris covering Bubbles.

Butch like Buttercup had no particular skill apart from his own physical strength and toughness. He settled to use his eye beams to blast where he ad seen Buttercup land, holding the twin red beams up as he charged up another attack. After a few seconds of the intense beam he added his hand blast of green light which blew up into a thousand balls of light when it hit.

'Toasty.' Brick said as he looked at the flaming wreckage he had created with his attack.

'I thought they would put up a batter fight then this Brick.' Butch walked over to his brother looking at the watch on his wrist. 'Come on that was only five seconds worth of fighting.'

'Don't worry Butch, I think they still have plenty left to give.' As he speaks he notices a little movement from where Blossom had ended up. 'We still have more to play with.' The three girls then stood up moving the heavy concrete and steel that had covered them. They now looked the worse for ware, Blossom was badly burned from Brick's fireball attack, Bubbles seemed to have broken her left arm and was covered in small cuts while Buttercup seemed to have gotten off the best of the three with only bruises and small cuts.

'Split them up and finish them off.' Brick ordered as he charged Blossom hitting her with a huge kick to the jaw that sent her up into the sky like a rocket. Boomer and Butch moved at the same time, Boomer tackling Bubbles on her left side to cause the most pain before they flew off away from the others. Butch made a spinning back kick against Buttercup to move her to the sky where they could fight alone.

Buttercup floated up in the sky looking at Butch, her wounds forgotten and now she had enough time to recover a little she was ready to give him a beating. Butch just smirked as he looked at her, him with out even a scrape on his clothes and Buttercup wearing mostly tatters covered in her own blood. Butch then decided to add insult to injury by placing his right hand behind his back. Buttercup was infuriated by the open act of mocking, as she usually did in such situations she charged without thinking and this time there was no Blossom to stop her. Butch slaps Buttercup across the face as hard as he can; the force of the hit with Buttercup's own momentum causes her to be left completely stunned.

'Come on sissy, I am only using one hand here! 'While his opponent is dazed Butch attacked again this time with a backhanded slap, followed by another front slap then he just repeated himself over and over just hitting harder and faster each time. This is a mistake because as Buttercup regains her control she can easily time his attacks to make a quick dodge of them. Now Butch is left wide open for an attack, Buttercup tried first to kick him but Butch puts up both hands and block this high kick. Butch had never been a tactician and now saw his second mistake too late; he had no way to block the second attack from Buttercup which was a powerful haymaker punch. Butch was hit right in the jaw and span round on the spot three times from the sheer might of the punch. When he stopped he felt his head still ringing and could see a trickle of blood coming down from the corner of his mouth.

'I'll get you for that!' Butch yelled out as he spat the blood out his mouth, his hate and anger boiling over and clouding his mind.

'What's the matter, did the baby get a booboo?' Buttercup said in a baby talk voice, pushing Butch over the edge so he attacked like a berserker. He closed his eyes as he made a mad dash at Buttercup, but the attack was sloppy and Buttercup managed to avoid it just in time.

'Oh come on cant you even land on punch?' Buttercup had found an opening and planned on exploiting it to the full, Butch just seemed to get angrier and angrier as he was taunted. Butch made another charge at Buttercup and again missed, but this time Buttercup made a light slap across his buttocks which hurt his pride far more then it hurt his body. Butch screamed out with frustration and rage before he attacked again, this time Buttercup mistimed her dodge and Butch hit her full on. Buttercup went into an unstoppable spin as pain flared through her whole body. Butch capitalised on her weakness and came down on her with a stomp kick with enough force to send her back to earth with a teeth rattling crash. Buttercup lay in a small crater below him, moving very slightly as she tried to get up to go on fighting.

'Stupid girl.' Butch said as he started rubbing his hands together as quickly as he could to build up a static charge. When he had built up enough to power a small city he fired the bolt of electricity down on Buttercup like an angry god smiting someone who had displeased him. Buttercup was just coming around when the pain smacked her back sending her tumbling into a world of darkness, her fight was over.

* * *

Meanwhile, high above the city Bubbles and Boomer were about to begin their fight. Boomer's hair now swept around his head in the high winds, this would never have been a problem if he had kept it short but like the other two Ruff's he had grown it long, now he struggled to see Bubbles properly. It was this distraction that stopped him from attacking her strait away, he was to busy trying to think of an answer to do anything else.

'I don't suppose I can convince you to stop been mean?' Bubbles asked with little hope in her voice. She would rather not fight him, and not because he was stronger, she just did not enjoy fighting at all and since the time of peace that had just grown.

'Nope, it's good to be bad... or is it bad to be good... but good is bad and I like bad which is good... ah never mind, I am staying bad!' Boomer stumbled over his own words partly because of nerves and partly because his attempt to sound cool was thwarted by his hair.

'I have no idea what you just said...' Bubbles just looked at Boomer confused, she had gotten lost after the first sentence, nearly as much as Boomer had. The Rowdy Ruff Boy finally realised that he could keep his hair out of his eyes if he looked into the wind, now he had nothing to hold him back he could respond the way he knew best.

'Then maybe this will make it clear!' Boomer fired his eye laser beams at Bubbles, the twin red beams missing her head by only a few millimetres. Bubbles quickly span to one side before she started to fly around Boomer in a wild pattern as fast as she could. Boomer tried to follow her with his eye beam, zigzagging all over the sky but was always a little behind his target.

'Stay still so I can hit you!' Boomer was used to people doing what he told them to do, well apart from his brothers, and really thought if he told Bubbles to stop she would.

'No way.' Bubbles said while weaving round the sky in a ray of blue light, Boomer's attacks still getting nowhere with her.

'Blonds are so dumb.' Boomer said as he tried to intensify his laser assault, the red light doubled in size and Bubbles could feel the heat even when the beams were nowhere near her.

'You do know you're a blond as well right?' Bubbles asked just as she did a loop de loop to avoid the eye beams. Boomer suddenly realised he had just picked an insult he heard his brothers use nearly everyday and that it insulted him as well.

'Shut up girlie!' Boomer stopped firing his eye lasers, seeing that they were getting him nowhere, and now tried to attack head on. Bubbles saw him coming and instantly stopped flying wildly and tried to get away and buy herself some time. Boomer was hot on her trail no matter what Bubbles tried to lose him; she flew high and low, in the city and deep in cloud cover. But her trail was a baby blue light which followed her everywhere and let Boomer do the same. Bubbles could not shake him, and what was worse was that Boomer was much faster then she was, every second he seemed to gain more and more ground on her. She pushed as hard as she could to move faster but could not do it. The hunter in this chase just felt more and more exhilarated as he got closer and closer to his prey.

'Oh no he's going to catch me.' Bubbles said as she tried another fly up through the clouds, but the cover was so small it was not nearly enough to help. Boomer was now only a few feet behind her and was moving so fast that with in a few seconds he was flying side by side with his female counter part.

'Hah I win the race!' Boomer shouted as he started to fire some pot shots with his energy blasts, Bubbles was now so close each shot was near impossible to dodge. The first three missed but after that Boomer could not fire a single shot wrong, his blue energy waves smashed into Bubbles body with brutal effect. The blue Puff could no longer keep at the high speed and control went spinning round the air madly, her whole body hurting from the attacks and crying out from exhaustion. Boomer seeing his chance leapt on it with out a single bit of mercy, he quickly launched a flying kick into Bubbles head to send her hurtling down to earth. Boomer did not let her hit the ground however; he flew down after her and just in time managed to get ahead so he could make a volleyball spike up. Bubbles helpless body went up into the air like a rocket, the force of the attack almost taking her consciousness away from her. Boomer smiled as he saw her going up, he had been waiting a long time for this and he also still felt burned about the kiss he had endured earlier. This time he flew up after her he could hear no scream of pain as he had heard when she had been going down and was almost disappointed at that.

'Going down?' Boomer asked as he past Bubbles one last time, Bubbles could just about hear him and tried her best to regain control but her body refused to obey her commands. Boomer went past her by a half mile then came down on Bubbles as fast as he could do so, his hand closed together to hit her with a double hand strike. The blow smashed home right on her chest and for the last time Bubbles went back to the earth, smashing through three buildings on her way before hitting the ground. Boomer slowly floated down after her and landed next to a pile of rocks under which he could just about make out Bubbles shape.

'Winner, Boomer!' His smile was so big now it was staring to hurt him, but he did not care anymore, he had won. Boomer kicked the rubble away and then dragged the nearly dead Power Puff Girl out, holding her like some unloved rag doll he flew over to where Butch was waiting. He dropped the limp body which bounced near where Buttercup lay, two down and one left to go.

* * *

On the same Skyscraper the boys had been waiting in ambush, Brick and Blossom prepare for a final fight. Brick tightened his grey fingerless leather gloves, straitened his hat and made sure his long red hair was tied back. Blossom spent the time trying to figure out some strategy to use against Brick, she was coming up with nothing more then blanks.

'I have been waiting a long time for this, at least try to give me a decent fight.' Brick said as he straitened his red jacket, he needed not to think of strategy for he had thought of them years ago; all he needed to think of was how sweet victory would be in a matter on minutes.

'I am going to do better then that Brick.' Blossom moved her self in to a ready pose, readying herself for whatever Brick might throw at her and thinking of all she knew about beating a stronger opponent. 'I am going to defeat you, just like I did before.'

'Words mean nothing, only actions... have at you Blossom!' Brick moved out of his relaxed stance so quickly and attacked so swiftly it almost caught Blossom off guard. He tried to hit her with a stamping kick to the shin, thinking it would slow her down enough for him to tare her apart at his leisure, but he hit nothing but the floor. His foot went deep into the solid concrete as he saw Blossoms jumping just in time to avoid his kick. Blossoms attacked with a kick of her own, an axe kick aimed for Bricks head that was strong enough to unnerve even the powerful Rowdy Ruff. Brick had enough time to make a block but had to use both hands and could not stop the momentum entirely. The kick diverted past his right side and made a small hole next to the one he had made with his own missed kick.

'Nice try but you're going to have to do better then that.' Brick spins as fast as he could with a leg sweep that Blossom jumps over again, but Brick expected her to dodge and tries to hit back with an overwhelming uppercut punch. Blossom uses all her agility to flip backwards just avoiding the deadly punch, but doing this means she has to take her eyes off Brick even if it was only for a second. Brick saw her eyes brake off him and used the small amount of time he had to make his attack. Taking in a deep breath he turned his mouth into a flame thrower, a ball of fire the size of a small car flew out to where he could see Blossom was about to land. Blossom landed on the ground and without even thinking rolled as fast as she could to one side. The flaming ball just rolled past her, but when she looked to where it came from she could not see Brick. What Blossoms had not seen was Brick had used the fireball as cover to hide behind to get behind his rival. Blossom heard a sharp intake of breath too late, from where the fireball had been Brick fired another ball this time Blossom could not get out the way. The ball hit her full on and exploded instantly, the entire roof was encased in orange flames that Brick seemed immune to. Walking through the fire he tried to find the charred remains of Blossoms, and was astonished to find nothing.

'Up here bonehead!' Blossom yelled from the sky, her clothes smoking and her flesh more badly burned then before, but she had used the explosion flash to fly unnoticed. Brick just looked up in disbelief as Blossoms fired her pink energy wave at him, using both hands and all the power she could muster to try and kill him.

'NO!' Brick moved quickly to counter as he fired his own red wave of energy at Blossom, the two clashing just a few feet in front of him. The shock wave was enough to cause Brick to be pushed back to the very edge of the building and almost lose his footing, but he managed to dig his feet in and hold on.

'Oh come on, you have been watching way too much anime.' Blossom said as she looked at the power struggle, the two waves pushing against each other to see who was stronger. Brick just grinned as he pushed his energy out with all his might, he was stronger then Blossom and knew it all to well. The red side of the beam instantly started to push up crossing the halfway line in seconds and getting closer to Blossom. The Power Puff Girl tried to push back but found she had no where near the energy Brick had at his disposal, the wave would not hold against him much longer. Rather then been hit by this attack Blossom decided to cut her losses and get out the way. In one fluid movement Blossom strafed to one side as she cut her own energy wave off, the red energy of Brick passing by her harmlessly.

'That was a close one.' Blossom said before she saw Brick suddenly standing right next to her.

'You have no idea.' Brick lunged with a powerful punch which hit Blossom right in the cheek leaving her dazed. The red Ruff grabbed Blossom by the hand and then flew up as fast as he could after the energy wave which was now heading for space. He decided it would be a shame to waste such a powerful attack like that, so span Blossom round his head to build up some centrifugal force then threw Blossom with all the strength his arms had. The aim was perfect and Blossom was to dizzy from the spin to stop herself, she moved right into the path of the energy wave at the exact time it was to hit. The red blast went into her and then continued on, leaving behind a beaten Power Puff girl. She floated there for a moment then plummeted, passing Brick before landing on the still burning roof.

'Puny Power Puff.' Brick looked down on Blossom thinking for a moment how easy this had been; maybe he should have attacked months earlier. 'We all must die someday; today is your day to die.' He knew she could not hear him but he cared not a bit, his brothers had not noticed or ignored the fact he had gone mad after their defeat. But in this moment he was as sane as he ever was, defeating the Girls seemed to be filling the hole that was in his mind. There was no time for reflection now, counting chickens before they hatched was tactical mistake and Brick did not make tactical mistakes. Without a shred of pity Brick started to spin as fast as he could before coming down on Blossom with a spinning drill kick. The two went through the entire sky scraper until they had reached the basement, all the time all Brick could hear was Blossoms cries of agony.

When the two had finally reached the lowest floor Brick stopped spinning and looked down on the defeated girl.

'Girls are pathetic fighters.' He spat on Blossoms face, and to his genuine surprise her eye opened a little and looked up at him. Brick looked at her for a moment then smiled as he saw the misery and pain in that single open eye. He bent down and picked Blossom up by the throat holding tightly, feeling her last breath escape and then desperately tries to refill her lungs. Blossoms made some squirming motions so small they were almost unnoticeable, Brick lets her try to escape for a moment more then ends the fight. He pulls his head back and then hit her dead on with a head butt, one second Blossom was in his hands the next she had flown through the skyscraper and had landed face down next to Bubbles and Buttercup.

Brick walked slowly out of the building striating his jacket as he did, dusting himself off a little and then floating up into the air. Both Butch and Boomer hovered directly over the Power Puff Girls waiting for him.

'This was too easy Brick.' Boomer said as he looked down at the Girls, Buttercup having woken up but unable to move more then a few inches while the other two lay motionless.

'Yeah, all sort of anticlimactic.' Brick said as he noticed Blossom had opened one eye again but could do nothing more, just watch.

'Almost makes all those years of training seem not worth it.' Butch also looks at the defeated Power Puff girls, humbled by them and now lived or died by their whims. 'Almost.'

'This is the end.' Brick started to move higher up and is closely followed by his brothers. 'This time no amount of crying will bring them back.' The three were now so high up that Townsville looked like a small dot to them, but they knew exactly where the girls lay helpless. Brick gave a silent command and the Rowdy Ruff Boys made their last attack, coming down with everything they had. From this height, with this speed, with their strength and the girls weakened position the attack was guaranteed to be fatal. The three streams of colour came down from the heavens and the two girls who where still awake could see them coming. Buttercup tried desperately to move but her body was just too badly injured to move much more then a few inches. Blossom just watched the sky and waited for the end; she was even more hurt then Buttercup and knew it was too late. The Power Puff Girls were about to meet their final end, at the hands of the Rowdy Ruff Boys.


	2. Janos

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 2

Janos

The city of Townsville, where now the second conflict between the Rowdy Ruff Boys and Power Puff Girls is about to reach its final conclusion. Two and half years after they had first been defeated the boys have come back, and now are moments away from their revenge. The Girls after a time of peace were no match for them, and are left helpless on the ground as the Rowdy Ruff final attack is launched.

'_We have to get up' _Buttercup thought as she saw three balls of light getting ever closer to them. She tried one last time to move out of the way, pushing with all she had left in her but only managed to raise up one hand for a second before she was left breathless. Now the three balls of light were only three seconds away the only hope lied with the citizens of Townsville. But they just stood there watching, a few of the bravest watched from the street but most hid inside and watched the new report, held by a mix of fear and shock which paralysed them.

The boys now could see the three girls, moments away from their deaths. Butch thought of how sweet it would taste to prove he was the toughest fighter on earth, Boomer though of how he would be able to stop training after this and have some fun, Brick's mind had nothing going through it at all. He was a blank slate, no consciousness in him at all as he closed in on his ultimate goal. It was these three's state of mind which let the girls be saved; either to focused or not focused at all meant that they never saw it coming.

A moment before it happened, that lethal blow, three streaks of colour light blasted past where the girls lay. One bright red, one dark blue and one dark green and all like the trial left by both Rowdy Ruff's and Power Puff's alike. The boys attack hit nothing but the ground, the impact causing an explosion so intense in power it was felt across the world and could be seen from space. When it had ended there was a crater over a mile in diameter and half a mile deep, nothing left inside of it but the three boys who had created it.

'What happened?' Boomer asked as he got back to his feet, he had seen the Power Puff Girls just before he hit then they seemed to just disappear when he was about to hit Bubbles.

'I almost had her, but she got away somehow.' Butch kicked away a small piece of rock, his anger was just been held in check but it was threatening to burst out at any moment.

'Someone moved them out of the way at the last second.' Brick had been the only one of the three to see the beam of light shoot past and a pair of arms pick Blossom up before he had hit her with his fist. He had not been able to see who had done it and did not care, who ever stood in his way would die a slow and painful death.

'What!?' Butch's anger spilled over, someone had tried to snatch away victory from him at the last moment... someone had dared to challenge his power, just like Buttercup had. 'Who would be stupid enough to do such a thing? Who ever it is I am going to rip their arms of and beat'em to death with them.' Butch punched his fist into his open hand so hard he almost broke some of the bones both in the hand and his fingers.

Brick walked out of the crater without saying another word to his brothers, his anger too was overflowing but he would not show it in battle if he could. His mind raced with a thousand different ways he would punish the ones who saved the Power Puff Girls, who had changed the plans he had been making for over two years, the ones who dared to try and stop him.

When the three boys had gotten out of the crater they could see their three targets and the three intruders, the ones who had been insolent enough to interfere with their battle. The Power Puff Girls were laid on the ground only a few meters from the edge of the crater. The three who had saved them stood over them with their backs to the crater, looking down on the girls as if in deep thought.

'Hey!' Butch yelled out as he was about to attack with an energy blast, but Brick put a hand out to stop him; he wanted to know who had defied his will before he killed them. And something as puny as an energy blast was too good for them, they would suffer long and painful deaths... maybe even worse then the Power Puff Girls would.

'Turn around and tell me who you are.' Brick shouted to them as Butch lowered his hands but kept his body tense.

'My name is...' The one looking over Bubbles turned round and looked at the Ruff's who recognised him immediately. The shock sent them out of their ready stances and left them all dumbfounded even before he said his name. They should have guessed it when they saw he was wearing a blue shirt with a black stripe around it, and from his blond hair. 'Boomer.'

'And mine is...' The second turned around and showed he was wearing a green shirt with a black stripe around it. 'Butch.'

'And I am...' He needn't have bothered to say or even turn round by this point, the red shirt, hat and hair gave him away. 'Brick.'

'And together we are the Rowdy Ruff Boys!' The three shouted together as they moved in closer to protect the girls. After this statement nearly everyone was left in amazement, from the citizens watching the fight to the Rowdy Ruff Boys who had come so close to destroying their rivals.

'It can't be...' Boomer kept looking from his brothers to the ones who had just saved the Power Puff Girls, unable to comprehend what was going on. They were the same, wearing their old clothes and with their old hair styles... also their Brick and Butch sounded different, but other wise it was like looking into a mirror.

'What should we do Brick?' Butch asked as he simply gawped at the three boys who looked like them, and also looked like they were protecting the Power Puff Girls. His leader did not look so much shocked now but angry, his fists clenched so tight blood was trickling between the fingers, his teeth held together so hard you could hear them straining, his eyes burning with his madness and hate.

'We fall back.' Brick said at last through gritted teeth. The other two looked at him in disbelief for a moment but he would not have that, he would be obeyed by all. 'I said we fall back, NOW!' He shouted at his two brothers with such authority that without even thinking they had taken off to the sky as fast as they could.

'Let's go after them!' The new Butch said as he saw their other halves fleeing from them, he took a step forward to begin a pursuit when his Brick grabbed his arm.

'There is not point; they have too much of a lead.' What he did not say was that he was afraid; he did not know who those three really were, only that they acted like they had when they were evil. They had nearly killed the Power Puff Girls, something this Brick would never think of doing.

'Ok then we should get out of here then Brick... the natives are looking restless...' The Boomer who had saved Bubbles said as he looked at the growing number of Townsville citizens who were looking at his brothers with malicious intent. The fear had worn off them and now they were getting ready to protect their heroines.

'We can't just leave them here like that.' Brick pointed at the Girls who were still too badly hurt to even sit up. Bubbles was still out cold, but both Blossom and Buttercup were awake and as confused as everyone else.

'I don't know what twisted scheme this is but as soon as I get up I am going to kick your butts.' Buttercup managed to say as she failed to stand up once again, she hardly even managed to sit up.

'See they don't even want our help, they want us dead just like we thought they would.' Butch said pointing at Buttercup, and then he turned his attention to the Townsville populace. 'They can take care of them, so let's get the hairy heck out of here before someone tries to lynch us.'

'I wouldn't trust this lot to look after a pet rock, let alone those three.' Brick went over to where Blossom was and carefully picked her up holding her in a fireman's carry. 'We get them home, safe and sound... then try to figure out what's going on around here. And that's an order Butch.' Brick slowly started to fly up, been extra careful with his passenger who lay motionless, but aware.

'Ok Brick.' Boomer said as he kneeled next to Bubbles, looking at her wounds he tried his best to avoid hurting her any more. He stayed away from her left side, where her arm bent un-naturally to one side, and held her in his arms like a baby. As soon as he was sure she was not in any un-necessary pain Boomer started to fly off after his brother.

'I still say this is a bad idea.' Butch shrugged as he went down to pick up Buttercup, not surprised in the least by the reaction he got from her.

'Don't touch me you filthy boy.' She made some protest as Butch hoisted her up and dropped her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

'Look this is no great time for me either; I might catch cooties or sissy disease from you.' Butch then started to slowly fly up, Buttercup's protests gradually becoming weaker as he went higher; she was in no mood for another fall. But as Buttercup stopped Townsville started, they thought the Rowdy Ruff Boys must be kidnapping the girls so tried to stop them as best they could. All manner of objects and insults were thrown at the boys, the people desperate to make up for failing to save the girls earlier.

'Brick they hate us, just like you said they would.' Boomer said with a hint of sadness in his voice, in a way he had been hoping they might be accepted the day they came out of hiding. That dream was now lost as he dodged a breeze block that had been thrown at him.

'Just endure it a little longer Boomer, as soon as we get the Power Puff Girls home we can go back to Citiesville and hide out there until things cool down a bit.' Brick said as he was hit in the back of the head by a tennis ball.

'But I hate Citiesville, and Citiesville hates us.'

'Like this place doesn't?' Butch was now high enough to avoid all the city had to throw at him, and had to control himself not to go rushing back down there to teach them a lesson.

'Let's just get through this.' Brick said as he started to fly in the direction of the Girls home.

* * *

The Utonium home, the boys had been here only once before and that was a year ago and in secret. They had just come back to Townsville a year after their defeat and wanted to check on everything there before they did, to make sure they never ran into certain people. Now they were here again, exposed to the very people they most wanted to keep away from.

'Ok we hand them over here and then get out of town as fast as we can go. Agreed?' Brick asked his brothers as he stood on the front step of the house. The two brothers both nodded agreement before they walked on to the door step. 'I just hope that Professor Utonium will hear us out.' Brick said as he floated up to the door bell and pushed the button.

The Professor answered the door in seconds, its was like he had been waiting by it for them.

'My babies!' He shouted out as he saw the three Rowdy Ruff Boys holding three badly beaten Power Puff Girls. His hand went behind the door and grabbed what looked like a very large iron poker. Butch just happened to be closest so was the one to suffer the Professors wrath, the poker smashed into his head with all the strength the Professor could manage. The iron started to bend as he repeatedly hit the green Ruff over the head, and Butch just stood there mildly annoyed. The first blow had hurt a little because it was a surprise, now the constant pounding was more annoying then painful.

'Cut it out, we didn't hurt your daughters... for craps sake stop hitting me!' Butch took the beating for only a few more hits then could not help himself, he simply blasted the poker with his eye lasers melting it in the Professors hands.

'You won't win that easily, I still have lots of things I can hit you with... oh and ray guns and such.' The Professor said sheepishly, realising in his fury he had not even thought about the weapons he had in the house which might be a little more effective on super villains. He would have gone for one of these weapons if Blossom had not finally found her voice, it's was quite and croaky after she had been throttled earlier but got stronger as she went on.

'Wait... there are two of them... Rowdy Ruff's... these ones... helped us.' She was as confused as everyone else was, but could see that if these Rowdy Ruff's were evil they could have killed her and her sisters at any time they wanted, but instead had saved them.

'As much as I hate to say it she's right Professor, these guys saved us... but I still think its some evil master plan or something.' Buttercup said, she could have spoken up earlier but was enjoying watching Butch been hit over the head way to much to do that. 'And will you put me down now!' Butch just shrugged as Buttercup yelled at him then let her drop to the ground with a thud.

'Thanks a lot...' Buttercup said as she tried to stand up, healing fast as she was Buttercup almost made it up but collapsed at the last second.

'Its true, we are not interested in hurting them in any way. We brought them her so you could look after them nothing more.' Brick said quickly, after looking at Buttercup's struggles to stand. 'The guys who did this were...umm... well I am not sure, they sort of look like us, but they are evil and well... were not.' That defence felt weak and pitiful as it came out, Brick normally was very good at speeches and such but right now panic, confusion and tiredness were taking their toll on him.

'If my girls say you're not evil then I believe them, but make one false move and I will blast you to kingdom come.' The professor pulled out a small laser gun, a tool really, that was used to cut metal but could be used as a weapon. Why he had not gone from this in his pocket instead of the poker was simply because he had forgotten about it until now. He had been working with it in the lab before the hotline had rung, and after taking his little fall had not realised he had put it in his lab coat pocket.

'Ok, we understand.' Brick said as he looked at the laser trying to figure out if it was powerful enough to hurt them.

'Good, now bring them inside... including Buttercup.' Professor Utonium said as he moved to one side of the door so the boys could get past him. Buttercup was still on her back trying to push herself up to her feet when she heard him say that.

'Professor I can get in on my own!' She tried once again and landed flat on her face before getting her first foot planted.

'Buttercup you can't even stand up at the moment, let alone walk on your own. Now I know how important your pride is but I can not leave you out here, and if I try to pick you up I would have to put the gun away and I don't trust these boys enough to do that. So right now I want you to swallow your pride and at least let Butch give you support so you can walk, though I would prefer if you rested and let him carry you.' Professor Utonium did not take his eyes off Brick and Boomer a they carried his other two daughters in side. 'That's good now wait there for the other two, then we will go the lab downstairs.'

'So girlie what's it going to be?' Butch said mockingly as he watched her struggle to turn round and lie on her back again. 'You going to stand up or am I going to have to carry you like a baby?' The insults were more then enough motivation for Buttercup; she pushed as hard as she could to make herself stand up. Slowly and shakily her leg moved to plant her feet flat on the ground, her arms stretched and pushed her up to a squatting position. Then very slowly and very shakily she managed to stand upright under her own power.

'Ah ha!' Buttercup yelled out triumphantly. 'I stood up on my own and... whoa.' She lost balance almost instantly, her body just too weak to keep it up for so long. But before she could do much more then lean back Butch put his hands and caught her.

'Well done you have equalled the accomplishments of a two year old.' He said as he slung one of Buttercup's arms over his shoulder and took almost of her weight.

'As soon as I am better I am going to kick your butt!' She shouted at Butch as they slowly walked into the house, the professor looking at them quickly and then looking back just as quickly.

'Promises, promises.'

* * *

The girls had been taken down to the Professors laboratory and placed on the three medic beds. They were hooked up to different machines that all gave off different reports on their life signs, while other devices did the job of helping them heal up. Chemical X was dripped into them, cellular regenerators worked on their cuts and they had a variety of different bandages on them. The whole set up looked like some weird hybrid of 'Star-Treks' 'Borg' and the 'Mummy'. The Boys mean while were sat on small stools with a large containment beam focused on them. Brick was sure it was not enough to hold them, but he did not want to make a bad situation even worse. He had ordered both Butch and Boomer to stay still and not try to escape.

'Ok now that my Daughters are cared for I think its time we had a little talk.' Professor Utonium pulled a chair of his own close to where the boys sat and looked at them like the detectives he had seen on television. 'I think its best to start at the beginning, tell me what you remember after the girls beat you the very first time.' Boomer and Butch both looked at Brick who nodded at them before he started to tell the Professor their story.

'After we were beaten the first thing I remember is wakening up on the outskirts of Townsville in a ditch...'

* * *

'Uk my head.' Brick opened his eyes for only a second before he was forced to close them as the light dug at his brain like daggers. His whole body was sore, his mouth was dry and his mind felt completely fogged up. If he had been older he might have thought he was suffering a hangover, but as he was only a child the best he could think was that he was sick. Why he thought this is a mystery, after all he had not been alive longer enough to be sick, he could not even remember been alive really. Brick could remember nothing at first, and later he would realise it was the last truly happy and innocent moment in his life, and at times wished he had never remembered.

'Owie, why do I feel so bad?' Brick forced his eyes to open and accept the hurtful light, when the blinding had ended he could see his brother Boomer was sitting up near by, holding his head like it was going to exploded if he let go. As soon as he saw him some memories came flooding back, how they came to be and some of the things they had done but he still had great blank holes in his memory.

'Quit whingeing ya' baby, and cant you say something a bit less girlie then "owie"?' Butch stuck his head up from the long grass he had been lying in, he had been awake for a little longer then the other two but still felt like ten pounds of manure in an eight pound bag.

'Sorry Butch, I'll try to say something cooler next time, but I do hope there isn't a next time.' Boomer finally let go of his head as the pain started to ebb away from him. 'Err; does anyone remember how we got here and why we feel so rotten?' Boomer could only just remember appearing in prison and then later introducing himself, after that he had nothing more then a big blank.

'Sure I remember, we lost that's what.' Butch's memory was bad but he could remember the end as clear as crystal. 'Those girls kissed us and we all went nuclear, after beating the stuffing out of them it took one kiss to put us down and out.' When Butch had said it he opened a flood gate in both of his brothers, the last moments of the fight came back with such force it nearly overwhelmed them.

'I remember now, we were fighting the Power Puff Girls and then they came back and acted cute.' Brick tried to stand up and for a second was sure he was going to faint, but the idea of fainting like a girl in front of his brothers was to humiliating that he managed to keep himself together. 'We were fighting them because MoJo JoJo told us to do it, we did lots of bad things and... the girls tried to stop us.'

'But we were better fighters, and nearly killed them.' Boomer continued as his memories came back to him. 'We thought we had them beat and were going to do even worse things, but then they came back and stopped us. Why did we do such horrible things?' Boomer's question hit home with both of his brothers, the Rowdy's had been thinking to much on what had happened and now why it had happened. None of them knew why, but now they felt different to how they had when they had been fighting the Power Puff Girls.

'We did it because we were bad, we enjoyed doing hurtful things.' Butch answered as he thought about how it felt to beat the Power Puff Girls, to see them in pain because of his actions and felt only sickness now, but remembered the way it made him feel before... it felt good.

'I don't like to think about it anymore, it makes me feel worse then I did when I woke up.' Boomer said putting his head between his knees to hide the fact he was starting to cry. Tears he knew were a sign of weakness and his brothers, especially Butch, would mock him for them.

'I know how you feel Boomer; it makes me feel sick to think of what we did before.' Brick was now looking at the horizon where the city of Townsville lay, the damage they had caused still visible even from here.

'So what do we do now leader boy?' Butch asked, he was now feeling a bit better, but his mind was still swimming around and he felt more depressed then he ever had in his short life time.

'Maybe we should go back to Townsville and apologise for what we did.' Boomer suggested as he got to his feet, his whole body moving stiffly and his balance almost failing him. How long they had been lying in that ditch none of them knew for sure, but it felt like at least a day and possibly longer.

'No Boomer, we can't go back and we certainly can not let the city know we survived.' Brick walked back over to where his brothers were, his body was now nearly back to normal but he still felt sick inside.

'Why not Brick?' Boomer asked his leader feeling even more downhearted, as much as he had done to it Townsville was his home and he wanted to go back to it.

'We nearly take over the city, nearly kill their heroes and are considered the most dangerous criminals on earth. If we go back now they will hang us from the highest tree before we can get word one out. The Power Puff Girls are thick headed and stubborn like us, they will be at the front of the parade to have us killed.' Brick looked at the road sign and read the miles and locations on it. 'And if we just go back we would be spotted right away, we have to go somewhere no one will know about us. Citiesville looks like the closet place worth trying.' He then saw Boomer who looked as Townsville with the face of puppy been taken away from its master. 'Oh come on Boomer don't look like that, we can come back here later. When things have cooled off and we are old news. I promise you, but if we go back now I can also promise we won't last the day.'

'Ok Brick, you're the leader.' Boomer took one last look at Townsville then started to hover ready to fly to Citiesville.

'Boomer get down, we walk from here, maybe hitch hike further up the way.' Brick said while dusting himself off, he had grass stains and watch looked like scorch marks all over his clothes.

'What the crap?' Butch asked as Boomer softly landed once again. 'Why in the hairy heck should we walk, we can fly there in no time at all!'

'If we use our powers here the Power Puff Girls might see us, or at least someone who lives in the city who will tell them, all leads to the same outcome.' Brick now cleaned off started to walk down the hard shoulder, his two siblings following closely after him. 'When we do get further in then we don't want to use our powers because it will get us noticed. Citiesville as I remember has no heroes of any type, if we started flying around there we will be in the news faster then you can say Rowdy Ruff Boys rule. When we are in the news I give it a day before the Power Puff Girls come after us.' The other two just stayed silent, they both knew Brick was right and the only real option they had was to follow him. So off they went, leaving Townsville and heading for Citiesville.

* * *

'We spent a year living in Citiesville, well nearly a year any way.' Brick continued with their story, only occasionally stopped by his brothers for missing details. They and the Professor were so wrapped up none had noticed that the three Power Puff Girls had woken up and were listening to the whole tale.

'We were miserable in Citiesville, the place was a real dump with boring people who were even more closed minded about super heroes then Townsville would have been with us.' Butch had never liked Townsville, had hated it the moment he had gotten there and never stopped. The first day they were there he got kicked off a bus because he tried to write their names on the wall, he only managed to get Brick's name before he was caught. After that he had sworn that Citiesville was the dump of the world and had bugged Brick non stop until they had left.

'We spent some time living in a local orphanage, but did not stay very long because of unforeseen circumstances.' Brick glanced at Boomer who nervously looked away; he knew that Brick was talking about him. When they had arrived at the orphanage they stayed just two days, Boomer had promised not to use his powers just like Butch and Brick. Unlike Butch and Brick he did not have the same mentality; he became a target for bullying by both children and adults and had nearly broken down completely. After that the three had lived out on the streets, just the three of them against the world but at least Boomer was happy then, even if he hated the city still.

'We just made do with what we had, waiting for Townsville to forget about us.' Butch said. 'It may never have happened if we had not been proclaimed dead, but that's how we avoided the big clean up when proposition 24601 was passed.'

'We did return to Townsville eventually, after a year of been in Citiesville...'

* * *

'Ok kids this is as far as I go, Townsville city limits.' The pick up came to a slow halt just beside the same ditch the boys had woken up in a year ago. The three jumped out of the back of the truck all manner of feelings and thoughts racing in their mind.

'Thanks for the lift.' Brick said to the old man at the wheel of the car, he had done more then given them a lift really. They had hitchhiked all the way here, but this man had driven them further then anyone else, going out of his way to get them there as well as buying them food on the way. 'And thanks for the help, really we do appreciate it sir.'

'Aw heck kid no need to thank me, and cut that "Sir" stuff out. Makes me feel like an old man.' He started to put the truck in gear before taking one last look at the strange little boys he had picked up early in the morning. 'Now you make sure you go strait home to your parents now, they are probably worried sick about you.' Boomer looked away feeling guilty about the lie they had told the old man to stop him taking them to the police.

'Don't worry sir... sorry.' Brick smiled as the driver began to reverse the pick up truck ready to go back the way they came. 'We will go strait home, do not pass go don't not collect two-hundred dollars.' At this very old joke the old man started to laugh like it was the first time he had heard it.

'All right kid, you be careful now. Bye!' The Pick up truck then went down the road which led to the city the boys had left behind with little regret.

'I can not believe it, were back here after been the garbage heap of the world for a whole year.' Butch had been holding back his excitement ever since they crossed the line which was Citiesville's border, he had never been happier to turn his back to place before in his life.

'Yippee we're back!' Boomer jumped up in the air and did some back flips, he had not been so happy before in his life. He had missed Townsville more then either Butch or Brick, he had spent most of his time counting the days until they could go back. Brick had decided they could go back today but told neither of them until they woke up; he wanted to keep it a surprise for a very special reason. With out any warning Boomer grabbed Brick round the waist so hard he nearly crushed him.

'Thanks Brick, this is the best Birthday present I ever had!' Brick was starting to go blue as he tried desperately to get Boomer off him.

'Boomer I know you're happy but please, I can't breathe!' Boomer let Brick go and as soon as he did Brick fell down panting like a dog, but his colour was coming back at least. 'It's the only birthday present you have ever had, so of course it's the best. Oh and Boomer, don't hug me like that again, makes us look likes girls.'

'Sorry Brick, but I am just so happy to be back here.' Boomer jumped up and down like someone who badly needed to pee, his ability to contain his emotions was almost non-existent.

'We're all happy to be back here but before we go in we have to set some rules up, so listen up both of you.' Brick had worked this speech out impeccably over the year, making sure he would not overlook some important detail. 'First we hold a lot of the same rules as back in Citiesville, no powers unless your life is in danger, do not draw attention to yourself in anyway shape or form, obey every and any law this place has and if anyone asks who you are remember the fake names. I am Brian, Boomer is Buster and Butch is Benny.'

'We know these rules all ready dofus, you repeat them every other day just in case we go brain dead for some reason.' Butch rolled his eyes as Brick rehashed the same rules they had sworn to follow when they had reached Citiesville.

'I was making sure you both knew that we would be keeping those old rules, but more importantly I do have some new ones for us to follow.' Brick had left a pause intentionally for Butch to protest, he did it every time Brick repeated the rules and now was just part of the routine with them. 'These are the new rules, first there are no go zones in this place, never go to the Suburbs were the Power Puff Girls live, never go to city hall, never go anywhere near MoJo JoJo's observatory, never go near Him's lair, never go by the police station and never go near Poaky Oaks schools... that includes the kindergarten and the elementary school. Second of the new rules is if there is anyone that might recognise us from before, avoid them like the cooties. Run away as fast as you can and hide, we can not get found here or we will have to leave and never come back. Ok that's the new rules, you both got them?' Both Boomer and Butch nodded their agreement, Boomer with much more enthusiasm then Butch did.

'Ok Brick I promise to follow the rules, now can we go into town?' Boomer was close to bursting again.

'Ok we can go in, but first we should check out a few places to see how things are... a few will be no go zones but...'

* * *

'...we had to be sure of everything, we had been done a whole year and a lot can change in that time.' Brick was feeling tried now, the day had been a long one for all of them. Not only had they found duplicates of them selves fighting the Power Puff Girls but had spent most of the morning trying to avoid officer Thursday. Officer Thursday was a hard man who had made it his mission in life to get the three Rowdy Ruff Boys to the orphanage and keep them there; so far all his efforts had been in vain. Today he had been especially determined and had the three boys running all over the city to avoid him.

'And then what happened?' The Professor found the story fascinating and was already starting to make connections, some things were small and some were big. He had a theory of what had happened two years ago forming in his head, and some ideas about how the Ruffs had been living so long with out anyone noticing them. What he had not realised was that the boys had been living on the streets their whole lives, Brick had chosen to keep this a secret because it was embarrassing. The Power Puff Girls lived in a nice home, with a loving father and with everything they could ever want. He and his bothers thought it a luxury just to be in a place with an actual roof over it.

'Then nothing happened really. We found everything was pretty much the same so stayed in town, kept out heads down and went about our lives.' Brick then felt a rumble in his stomach; they had been so busy today they had not eaten.

'But how did you know that my girls were in trouble then?' The professor asked the three boys who were now actually starting to look worse then the three Power Puff girls who listened into the conversation silently. 'It seems suspicious that at the just the right moment you three finally reveal yourselves to the world.'

'Not really, it was just dumb luck which let us find out those copies of us were attacking the girls. You see we watch "Major Glory" on TV everyday that we can, and today was one of the days we could watch the show. It was while the show was on that the news flash broke in and started reporting about the Power Puff Girls battle with what looked like us. When we saw how badly they were doing we decided to step in, even if it meant blowing our cover. We got there just before the girls could be killed, but if we had not been watching the TV when it happened then we would never have shown.' Brick said ending their story, as far as they were willing to tell it anyway.

'That's a very interesting story, now I do have one question for you three and you better answer truthfully' The three boys leaned forward ready for the question, Butch secretly hoping it was not a math question for some bizarre reason. 'The question is, why did you save my daughters?'

'That's it!?' Butch could not believe that was the one question that the professor thought was so important. 'You want to know why we saved the girlies.'

'That's an easy one; even I know the answer to that question.' Boomer said. 'We saved them because it was the right thing to do, to just let them be killed would have been wrong, evil even.'

'And you have no desire what-so-ever to be evil again?' Professor Utonium was now nearly positive that his theory was right; all he needed was this answer then to go and check it.

'Nope, we told you been evil made us feel guilty and icky...' Butch glanced at Boomer as he said this, Boomer instantly corrected himself. '...I err meant to say made us feel bad.'

'Yeah right.' Buttercup could not hold her silence anymore; she just could not believe the boys had changed so easily. 'You just turned over a new leaf because been evil made you feel "icky" I remember how much fun you had been evil, how am I meant to believe you suddenly decided that it wasn't fun anymore?'

'Buttercup, Blossom, and Bubbles you girls are awake!' The Professor abandoned the boys to run over to his girls to check how they were. Thanks to their powers they were almost perfectly all right again, but that did not stop the professor worrying about them.

'We're fine Professor.' Blossom started to say before the Professor but a bare hug on her so tight she could feel every wound that was still there sing out with pain. 'Cant... breathe...' The Professor loosened his grip a little but did not let go of Blossom.

'Oh thank goodness your all ok, I was worried that you might have been really hurt in that fight.' After a minute more hugging his three girls in turn they finally could turn their attention back to the three boys in the confinement beam. Boomer had now nodded off while Butch and Brick both held on to consciousness by a thread.

'Professor what do you think of their story?' Blossom asked as Brick nudged Boomer who woke up with a snap even though his eyes were still glazed over and he could not remember where he was.

'I think they maybe telling us the truth girls...'

'Oh don't tell me you've fallen for it as well Professor.' Buttercup swung her legs out of the bed as she started to tare off the machine connection and useless bandages which covered her almost healed body. 'They are evil, always have been and always will be evil.'

'Then why did they save us then?' Bubbles asked as she started to unwrap the bandage round her head, feeling a slight twinge of pain in her left arm, which less then an hour ago was broken.

'I don't know, all I do know is that right now we have them captured and have the best chance to stop them once and for all.'

'Buttercup what have I told you about judging people?' The professor for one of the few times in his life was truly angry with one of his daughters; Buttercup was been so stubborn and close minded that she just did not seem to listen to reason. 'And I think there is a way to see if they are telling the truth to us, all we have to do is watch a video tape.' Professor Utonium stood up and then went to a large bookcase that had hundreds of cassette tapes. 'I really should put these on DVD's and then organise them in some way... lets se, Girls vs. Him as Octi, Girls vs. Dynamo, Girls Vs MoJo JoJo's Anubis head...' He went over each tape reading out the titles which were of all the fights the Power Puff Girls had ever had, until he eventually found the fight with the original Rowdy Ruff Boys.

'You have tapes of all our battles?' Blossom asked as the Professor put the video into a recorder.

'Yes I decided to keep a record mostly based on the news coverage, I watch them every now and then for memories sake... but I have not watched this tape before, it was not your best fight girls.' The video screen went into static snow and then a recording of Townsville news started.

'If you have just joined us it appears the Power Puff Girls are fighting three young boys calling themselves, the Rowdy Ruff Boys...' The newscaster suddenly went to a high voice as professor Utonium started to fast forward.

'I don't think we have to see the whole thing, just the very end.' He said as he past though some of the horrible scenes of the girls been defeated, and when it had seemed they had been killed. He stopped just before the final decisive kiss which had halted the Rowdy Ruff boys last time. 'Here we go, now watch very carefully.' The Professor hit play and as soon as he did the screen showed Brick been kissed by Blossom.

'It appears the Girls have kissed the Rowdy Ruff Boys... why I can't... wait something seems to be happening.' The newscaster stopped speaking when the three boys started to shake violently. Then there was a loud explosion as light, snips, snails and puppy dog tails burst out from where the three boys had once stood. When that had happened the professor hit stop on the machine and looked back the Ruff's and Puff's.

'Man I hate seeing that.' Butch said as he involuntary put his hand where he had been kissed.

'Hey it was not the high point of my life either; kissing you was like kissing a toad.' Buttercup said. 'And I can't see anything new Professor; we kissed them they blew up that's all.'

'That's because the explosion partly covers it, also it happens too quickly for anyone to see it... here let me make it clearer.' The Professor rewound the video back to the moment the three Ruffs started to shake after they had been kissed. 'Now if I reduce the brightness and speed, and put in a filter program we should be able to see it this time.' The film went black and white and at least to shades darker as it started to play much slower then before. This time as the Rowdy Ruffs started to shake you could see there was a small crack of light going strait down the middle of them. They kept shaking and the light started to get brighter despite then filter and darkening of the brightness levels. Then the actual explosion occurred but at slow speed the truth could be seen. The crack of light slit the boys in two, one set of Rowdy Ruff's on the right and one on the left. Out of the middle came the snips, snails and puppy dog tails but the Rowdy Ruff Boys were not destroyed, they were all very much alive. The force of the explosion caused each group to be flung helplessly either to the right or the left, even at the slowest speed it happened as a blur. The tape afterwards came to a stop.

'Just as I thought!' The Professor said as the tape ejected and he started to put it back where it belonged.

'The kiss made them split in two?' Bubbles asked confused as she looked at the boys who were just as bewildered by the revelations of the video tape.

'More then that, it split their personalities. Simply amazing really.' The professor sat down again as he explained his theory. 'You see all creations of chemical X have some instability, you three are prime examples of this really. I meant to create one perfect little girl but instead created three, who have the personality and abilities split between you. Now, I don't know how MoJo JoJo found chemical X in prison...' He looked at the three Ruff's who were still held by the energy prison.

'Um, we don't remember.' Brick lied, unfortunately Boomer did not realise why he was not telling.

'I do he used the Toi...' Boomer did not get any further as Butch grabbed his mouth.

'Like Brick said, we don't remember.' Butch said as he let Boomer go who jus looked at them perplexed. He remembered well enough that MoJo JoJo had used the prison toilet to make them in. What he had not known was that the system was contaminated by chemical X, it had been poured away into the drains after it was found in a prisoners personal affects. How he managed to get chemical X, and what he was planning to use it for is another story.

'Well whatever he used was even more unstable then normal, you boys were been held together by the proverbial thread.' The Professor could see the boys did not want to answer him for some kind of personal reason so decided to just to keep going. 'When my girls kissed you it snapped that thread in you, this one held your good personality and evil personality together in one body. The result was two new sets of Rowdy Ruffs been created, one good and one evil. To think the same thing could have happened to my girls if I had not used stable chemical X. Every time they did something bad would have risked the same thing happening to them, like oh I don't know... getting your father to unknowingly steal toys for you.' The Professor glared at the three girls who all found interesting things on the floor to look at.

'So the kisses somehow woke the good inside us and because we were unstable our bodies could not hold to opposing forces so was forced to separate them completely.' Brick said, understanding now everything that had happened to them, even Butch and Boomer had some basic idea of what the Professor was saying.

'Yes that's exactly what happened, and why when my girls kissed the evil versions of you it had no effect, the thing that had caused them to explode was gone... that was you three.'

Blossom pointed to the Rowdy Ruff Boys and then said. 'Well now we know everything, what exactly are we going to do about them?'


	3. Acceptance

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 3

Acceptance 

The city of Townsville, where now the good Rowdy Ruff's await the decision of Professor Utonium on what should be done with them.

'Well I think that it may be best to carry out some tests on the boys, to see if there is anything we can use to stop their other halves. The tests should not take more then a few hours to perform and...' The Professor stopped when he heard the thud of Boomer falling off his stool as exhaustion defeated him. Brick had also nodded off, leaning his head on the energy field which kept them trapped, while Butch held on to consciousness by a thread. Every few seconds his head would drop then snap back up as he forced himself to stay awake.

'Uh Professor I don't think doing tests on them now would be a very good idea.' Bubbles said.

'Yes I think you maybe right Bubbles.' The Professor said rubbing his chin and now wishing he had his pipe, but had given that up years ago after the girls nagged him about it. 'Then the best solution is to keep them here over night and do the tests tomorrow morning.' Professor Utonium went over to the confinement laser and started the shut down procedure, but as he did Buttercup flew up to him.

'Professor don't let them out of there!' Buttercup said as she tried to pull his hand away from the controls. 'As soon as they are out who knows what they might do!' The Professor looked at the three boys, one fast asleep on the floor, one asleep where he sat and the other one struggling to find the strength to keep his head up.

'Buttercup we know they are not evil anymore, and even if they were right now I don't think they have the strength to hurt a fly.' The Professor finished switching off the beam which caused the shield around the boys to disappear, and thus Brick's support was gone. The red Ruff fell to the floor next to Boomer and instantly jumped up looking half asleep.

'I'm awake, was just resting my eyes and such...' His cheeks started to go a little red as realised he had dozed off at some point.

'Boys I would think it best you stayed here the night, your obviously tired and I wish to perform some tests on you. You can sleep in our guest room tonight and then we can get the tests done in the morning...' The Professor was about to lead the three to the room when he heard a loud growling noise, almost equal to a bear roar. Brick and Butch looked at their stomachs as the growls became a little quieter.

'Heh, guess we forgot to eat today.' Brick said as he put a hand to his stomach, the sound of its acid bubbling getting louder again. The boys had not actually had anything to eat all day; they had been too busy for most of it.

'Ok then first we will feed you then you can go to sleep...' Professor Utonium stopped again as his nose wrinkled up as the powerful stench of the boys hit him. He had not noticed it earlier with the field holding it in place, but the three Ruff's had a stench bad enough to wake the dead. 'On second thoughts, you can have a bath and then eat before you go to sleep... and I will even wash your clothes.'

'Hey what's wrong with the way I smell?' Butch asked as he sniffed both of his armpits, lucky for him he had some immunity to his own body odor.

'Right now you smell like you have not had a bath in months, and I speak from experience.' Buttercup said, the three girls had noticed the smell earlier and had been careful to keep some distance from the boys when the shield went down.

'I had a bath only a little while ago... lets see it was um... shortly after Christmas!' Butch said. 'That's only nine odd months ago, so there is no way I am going to have a bath now.'

'Oh I don't know about that Butch.' The Professor said with a sly smile crossing his face. 'Girls please show these boys the way to the bathroom.' Butch suddenly looked extremely panicked as the three Power Puff Girls started to come closer.

'This does not look good...' Butch said as Buttercup jumped him, Blossom grabbing Brick round the neck and Bubble just having to lean down and pick up an unconscious Boomer.

* * *

'This is humiliating.' Butch said as he sat in a bathtub with water that had gone instantly black when the three were thrown in. The Girls had dragged them all up here, Butch trying his best to escape but failed miserably. The Professor had then gotten them in tub, threatening if they did not go in willingly he would get the girls to help, and that would be too embarrassing.

'Hey it's not to bad Butch.' Brick noticed the bubbles coming from the tub and put a hand in to drag Boomer back to the surface. He had not woken up once, even when the Professor had thrown them in the tub. 'At least the Girls did not see us getting undressed.' Brick put Boomer so he leaned half out the tub but at least was not drowning.

'I think maybe two baths would be a good idea.' The Professor said looking at the pitch black water. He had the boy's clothes in one hand and the soap in the other. 'Ok let that water out then run another bath, use the soap to clean yourselves and by then I should have your clothes cleaned.' He looked at the boys clothes which smelled as bad as they did, sighing he left the three to put the clothes in the machine.

'Ok Brick now he's gone what's the plan?' Butch asked as he looked at the soap like it was an alien device.

* * *

'The plan is simple; we let this water out and clean up. Then get our clothes, get some food and sleep here the night.' Brick said as he pulled the plug letting the dirty water out. 'Don't look at me like I am crazy Butch, we don't exactly have any where better to be right now and I am tired and hungry. Tomorrow we will be fed, rested and clean for the first time since... I can't even remember a time like that. We will then help the Professor in anyway we can, he is been very kind to us and seems to understand we are not bad guys anymore. We owe him at least that much for not killing us when he had the chance, but hearing us out.'

'Ok fine Brick, we stay here and help them out... but I am only doing it for the perks like food and actual beds.' Butch said folding his hands as Brick started to run the next bath.

Down stairs the Professor had put the boy's clothes into the washing machine and had put some dinner on to cook. His daughters sat in the living room watching TV and talking about the Rowdy Ruffs, from the sound of it Buttercup was still for killing them while Bubbles and Blossom at least wanted to give the boys some chance. Professor Utonium was about to go up and see how the boys were doing when he heard Blossom speaking.

'Buttercup I know why you don't trust the boys, I don't fully trust them myself, but killing them would be wrong. You heard the Professor explain they are good now, and they did save our lives. If they had not come when they did we would have been scattered all over Townsville right now.'

'Lucky they have TV at the orphanage, and Brick likes "Major Glory" cartoons as much as you do Blossom.' Bubbles said holding tightly to her Octi toy. Bubbles mentioning the orphanage reminded Professor Utonium that the boys had been gone all day and would be gone all night. He quickly changed path from the stairs to go to the house phone, quickly glancing through the phone book for the right number. When found it and had dialed he was greeted by an elderly voice that could have been of either sex.

'Townsville orphanage how can I help you?'

'Hello this is Professor Utonium, I just wanted to talk about three boys who go to you're...' He was rudely cut off by the voice.

'Which three and what have they done this time?' The voice sounded tired and exasperated.

'Brick, Butch and Boomer. They are brothers, triplets actually.'

'We have no children here by that name, and no triplets for that matter. Unless you're talking about those three Officer Thursday keeps complaining about.'

'Officer Thursday, why would he keep talking about them?'

'The three Houdini's as he calls them. One Brian Ruff, one Benny Ruff and one Buster Ruff. Three street kids who have been avoiding us for a year now, and officer Thursday for that matter. If you know where they are sir it would be a great help...'

'Sorry my mistake, I will call you back. Bye now.' The Professor took great pleasure cutting off the monotonous voice and then hanging up. Now he knew the truth about the Rowdy Ruff Boys, they had never mentioned they did not go to an orphanage, but they had deliberately not told him they did not go to one. The best way to trick someone is to let them tick themselves; at least they were intelligent in that respect. Now he understood why they seemed so in awe with his home, he had thought it was just because it was such a nice home but to homeless children it must seem like a palace.

'Come on we've been in this thing for ages, where are our clothes!' Butch yelled out from upstairs, pulling professor Utonium out of his thoughts. Looking at his watch he could see that he had been in deep thought for well over half an hour and the boys had been waiting all that time. Quickly he ran to the washing machine to get their clothes out and then went to give the boys their clothes.

'Sorry I was distracted for a moment... I did not have time to dry them.' The Professor held out the soaking wet clothes as the Ruff's finished drying off with the spare towels.

'No need to worry Prof we can deal with that easy.' Butch said firing his eye laser beams at a low level, the heat drying their clothes in seconds. Without a word Butch took his and started to get dressed, Brick however did thank the Professor for cleaning their clothes.

'Your welcome Brick... is he still asleep?' Professor Utonium said pointing at Boomer who just lay on the floor in the fetal position wrapped in a blue towel.

'Boomer can sleep through nearly anything Professor, its one of his many talents.' Brick said, his brother having never woken up had to be dressed by Brick and even through this never so much as flinched, he was like a rock.

'If he is so tired maybe we should just put him to bed, he can't eat if he is asleep.' The Professor said.

'Don't worry about Boomer, just take us to the food I am sure he will manage to eat something.' Brick said making sure his back was to the Professor so as to hide the smile that crossed his face. The professor just shrugged as the now much cleaner Rowdy Ruff's came down the stairs, Boomer been carried by Brick.

'Girls dinner is ready.' The professor shouted from the kitchen where the three boys were now sat waiting. A second later and three beams of color light shot into the room and the girls were sitting on the other side of the table.

'Oh man sitting next to his ugly face is going to put me off my food.' Buttercup said quietly to herself as she glanced at Butch, who at least no longer smelled like ten year old gym socks.

'I'm sorry but I could only cook something simple tonight, with so many to feed and such short notice and all.' The Professor placed down three large plates with three different pizzas on them, the second Butch and Brick saw these their mouths started to water and their stomachs growled so loud that neighbors thought a dog was at the Utonium house.

'Err is he ok?' Bubbles asked looking at Boomer who was still dead to the world, his head dropped over the back of the chair and making very quiet snoring noises.

'Boomer's fine, just give it a moment.' Brick said, the smell of the pizza now starting to reach them he knew that Boomer would be up soon. The very second the aroma of pizza touched Boomer's nose his eyes snapped open and he was wide awake.

'FOOD!' Boomer yelled so suddenly that Bubbles and Blossom jumped with fright, Buttercup felt her heart leap up but kept her cool so as not to look like a sissy in front of the boys. Boomer could not be stopped; his hunger was just too much for him as he looked at the pizza laid out in front of him. He grabbed the first slice and started to wolf it down, as soon as he took a slice both of his brothers followed him grabbing at the food and eating it as quickly as they could. As soon as they were done with one slice they moved onto the next, they seemed to hardly stop for anything but a few breath of air and the occasional sip of water.

'Wow, you guys must be hungry.' Blossom said, her hand tentatively going out to take a slice of pizza, worried one of the boys might grab it and try to eat it at the rate they were going. In only a minute they had decimated at least a pizza and a half and showed very little sign of slowing down.

'Well we were hungry; we did not have very much to eat today.' Brick said between eating a slice and getting the next one. 'And to tell the truth we have not eaten something this good in along time.'

'Last time we had anything like this was our Birthday last year, we saved all of our money and went to eat at "Burger Barn"... but that was nothing to this pizza, wish we had tried it before.' Boomer said as he finished off his last slice for the night, having eaten at least ten large slices.

'Wait a second you had to save a year to eat one meal at "Burger Barn"? We eat there all the time and its dirt cheap to do it; I can afford it off my allowance.' Buttercup said as she started to eat a slice of the remaining pizza.

'And you have never had pizza before?' Blossom asked now nearly full from eating on two slices of the pizza.

'Well we don't get that much money, and have better ways to spend it then on fast food.' Butch said, he was now full himself and leaned back in his seat feeling tiredness taking over him again.

'Girls please don't ask the boys anymore questions right now, they are practically asleep.' Professor Utonium said to his girls, and then said to the boys. 'Come with me, I will show you your room and you can get some sleep so we can start those tests in the morning.' Boomer let out a long yawn before he jumped down from his chair followed by Brick, Butch stayed for a moment longer grabbing one final slice of pizza before following the Professor up to the guest room.

The room was rather bare, three beds a chest of draws and a small closet been the only real furniture in it. It was completely white, from the walls to the bed sheets, but to the three boys it looked like a royal bedroom. Butch walked in eating his pizza slice and just went to the first bed saying nothing, Boomer shuffled in at first then seemed to find the same energy he had when food was there and ran to his bed in the middle. He jumped onto and started to roll around onto of the soft mattress.

'Look Brick real beds!' Boomer had never been on something as comfortable as a bed before, he had been used to making do with the sleeping bags they had been given by a charity for so long now. Brick just smiled as he went to his bed and jumped in.

'Thank you Professor, we were really tired and these beds are just great.' Brick went under the covers as the Professor switched off the lights.

'Your welcome boys now have a good night,' He closed the door; before it had even half closed he heard the slow breathing meaning the three had fallen asleep. Leaving the Ruff's to sleep he went down to see the girls who had just finished cleaning up after the Ruff's eating frenzy.

'They sure did eat a lot.' Bubbles said as she finished counting how many slices of pizza had been eaten by each of the boys.

'At least they don't smell after that bath they took.' Blossom said, she was just finished with loading up their dishwasher and feeling ready for bed herself.

'Well I am glad that after the tests in the morning those three are out of here.' Buttercup said as the Professor walked in.

'Girls I need to talk to you for a moment.' Professor Utonium said as he sat down at the kitchen table, the Power Puff Girls floated slowly over to sit next to him.

'What's up Professor?' Blossom asked as she took her seat.

'It's about the boys; I think they might be staying a little longer then one night.' The Professor said. 'You see they don't have anywhere else to go after they leave here, they have been living homeless ever since you defeated them two years ago. You girls have helped out at the shelter on Christmas and know what kind of life they must have been leading.' The three girls were quiet, even Buttercup who had been all for kicking the boys out. All the questions they had asked the boys, like why eating at "Burger Barn" was such a big dead for them, came back to them and made them feel awful. They also now remembered how the boys reacted when they were shown pizza, and how they looked around the house like it was the most amazing thing they had seen. It also explained why they still wore the same clothes they had two years ago and had not bathed for so long.

'Why didn't they tell us Professor?' Bubbles was the first to break the silence.

'My guess is both pride and embarrassment.' The Professor said. 'They may think that we would think less of them if they told us they were homeless, after all look at our home. I know we are not the richest people in the world but we are far from poor, to those three boys this place must seem like Buckingham palace. Now because of this I don't want you to let the boys know that we know they don't live at the orphanage. If they deicide to tell us on their own that's fine but until then we will leave it alone.'

'So you are going to ask them to stay here then Professor?' Blossom asked.

'Yes, I think it might be best for everyone if they live here for now.' Professor Utonium said. 'With the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys out there and those boys having only a cardboard box to go back to I can't think of a better solution.'

'Aw come on Professor we don't need them to stay here!' Buttercup said, swallowing the guilt she had felt and replacing it with her hate of the boys. 'We can handle the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys on our own...'

'You mean like you did today?' The Professor said, his eyebrow lifted up but Buttercup did not stop.

'...They would just get in our way. Besides they have lived on the streets for two years, I am sure they can live there just as easily when we kick them out tomorrow morning. And I think they deserve to live on the streets after what they did.' Buttercup said shocking both of her sisters and the Professor.

'Buttercup!?' Bubbles said.

'How could you say that Buttercup? It's such a mean thing to say.' Blossom said, as she did professor Utonium's shock gave way to anger.

'Buttercup Utonium!' professor Utonium was going red with rage, he had to control himself to make sure he did not go into a swearing fit or shout so loud he would wake the boys. 'Is this how I brought you up? I have told you that you can't just judge people by single actions they did in the past, no matter what they have done. Now these boys are not the same ones who tried to kill you, those three boys have done nothing to you but saved your life! Now I don't care if you do or don't like them, but you will not treat them like criminals. Do I make myself clear Buttercup?'

'Yes Professor.' Buttercup said, she felt guilty after the Professor had grilled her so badly, but sill thought that they did not need the boys to stay here.

'Good, now I think you three should go to bed and rest up.' The three Power Puff girls jumped off their chairs and left for bed leaving Professor Utonium alone in the kitchen. He had stopped feeling angry now, he could never stay mad at his girls, but he did feel sorry for Buttercup who was so stuck in her ways. More though he felt bad for the boys, in all likeliness the city would treat them just as badly as Buttercup did. It was the thought of the city which reminded the Professor he actually ha done last thing to do. Checking his watch he saw it was not to late to make one more phone call before he went to sleep himself. Getting up he went to the Kitchen phone and dialed a number by memory, after three rings he was greeted by a familiar voice.

'Miss Kean, how can help you?' Miss Kean was the girl's teacher in Elementary school; she had decided to move up with them when they had finished Kindergarten.

'Hello Miss Kean, this is Professor Utonium.'

'Well hi there Professor, are the girls all right? I saw the fight on TV and it looked like they were hurt, will they come in tomorrow?' Miss Kean sounded very worried, if there had ever been a mother figure for the girls she was it and the relations seemed two ways at times.

'Don't worry; it will take a lot more then that to stop The Power Puff Girls. They will be in school tomorrow with out fail.'

'Well I am glad to hear it Professor. But if the girls are fine why are you calling?' Miss Kean asked.

'Well I was wondering if there was room in your class for three more students.' The Professor replied.

'Three more students, well I do have three more places left but its three weeks into the term, will they be able to catch up on the work?' Miss Kean said.

'I will make sure they do it Miss Kean, that's a promise.'

'Well all right then. Now who are these three then Professor?'

'Err; this may take a moment to explain so please hear me out...' The Professor said, he was worried if this was the right choice to make, but if Miss Kean did not accept them then no one would.

* * *

The next day at Poaky Oaks Elementary school six students arrived by flight, three girls leading three boys. The Rowdy Ruff's had been dubious about the idea of going to school, but in return for a place to stay and a meal they would have dressed up as girls and done a musical act. So for the first time in their lives they were at a school, the Professor giving them supplies and promising to have their room more livable by the time they got back. The only thing Professor Utonium had said before they left was that the three were to do anything Blossom ordered them to do and anything Miss Kean asked them to do.

'Ok boy's this is the school, and while we are here I am in charge.' Blossom said. Boomer nodded while he played with the straps on his backpack, Brick made a small nod and Butch just made a huff noise and looked away for Blossom. 'And as your leader I have one order strait away, not under any circumstances are you to use any of your powers while you are in school.' Butch started to make some protest but Brick put a hand over his mouth to shut him up.

'Ok Blossom, we wont use any of our powers while we are here, promise.' Brick let go of Butch who grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off to one side.

'Man why are you taking orders from a sissy girl for!' Butch said in a low conspirator's voice.

'Look the Professor told us to obey Blossom while we are at school so that's what we will do, or don't you like sleeping in a real bed and eating good food?' Butch stayed quiet, he knew that they had never had it as good as they did now. 'So if it makes you feel better I order you not to use any of your powers at school, and I will make the same orders Blossom does if it makes you feel better. Or will you stop following my orders now Butch?'

'You know I wont, if you say so then I will follow Blossom's little orders, but only because you say so Brick.' Butch said, to this Brick just nodded before going back to where the others were waiting.

'Sorry about that, Butch just needed a reminder of who was in charge.' Brick said. 'Now can you show us the way to class?' Brick asked Blossom who just smiled sweetly at him.

'What's the magic word?' Blossom asked, Brick just looked mystified as he tried to figure out why magic spells were needed to gain entry to a class room.

'Please can you show us to class Blossom?' Boomer saved his leader from looking like a complete ass, all the while still trying to get his backpack to fit right.

'Of course I can Boomer, follow me.' Blossom said, now she knew at least one of the boys had some manners and it was no surprise which one it was. She walked ahead of the group with Buttercup walking next to her, Butch and Brick followed after her while Boomer was still trying to stop his bag falling off his shoulders every time he let go of the straps.

'Here let me help you with that.' Bubbles said, she went over to Boomer and in three quick movements got his bag to stay still.

'Thanks!' Boomer said cheerfully as he tested out the bag, seeing it stayed no matter how much he moved or jumped.

'No problem Boomie' Boomer went bright red when her heard Bubbles call him "Boomie".

'My names Boomer, not Boomie.' Boomer said, he did not wait for Bubbles to answer before he ran after his brothers who had now gone into school. Bubbles just stood there giggling for a moment before she started off for class.

* * *

'Now class today we have three new students joining us, I have been assured that despite past events they are very nice boys and are welcome in out class.' Miss Kean stood at the front of the classroom, the students all sitting in place with only three empty spots at the very back of the room. 'Now come in boys, don't be shy.' At that the three Rowdy's walked into the classroom to the sound of shock gasps, followed by muttering rumors and insults.

'Brick I don't like the looks of this...' Butch said out of the corner of his mouth as he saw the looks of despise on the faces of their fellow class mates. Brick did not answer him, he just scanned the room looking for at least on friendly face and the best he could come up with was the Power Puff Girls.

'This is Brick, Boomer and finally Butch.' Miss Kean pointed to each boy as she said their names then pointed to the three empty seats at the back. 'Those will be your seats today boys, please go and sit down and take out your history books.' The Three boys walked to the three seats, moving past thirty odd glares of hate as they did. The moment they sat down someone threw a paper ball which hit Brick on the back of the head, he looked round but could not tell who had thrown it. He opened it up and saw written was '**Get lost Rowdy Ruff, you suck!'** in angry red letters. Brick tossed the note to one side then sat down in his chair taking out his history book.

The rest of the lesson was very similar to the start, when ever Miss Kean turned her back something bad would happen to the Ruff's. First it was more hate notes thrown at them, then some idiot with a spit gun started to pelt Butch with them. Brick just managed to stop his brother from ramming the straw down the kid's throat, ordering him to just ignore it. A few more pranks like those were pulled on the boys, who just sat there and took it, tattling was for sissies after all. The class ended with someone pouring water on Boomer's lap and pretending it was an accident before he left laughing.

'Tough it out Boomer, remember you're a Rowdy Ruff Boy.' Brick said as he saw the tears brimming up in Boomer's eyes. Boomer quickly wiped them away before they could start to flow and packed up his books.

'Come on boys its lunch time, I'll show you the way to the lunch room.' Blossom felt bad for the boys, but knew if she had told Miss Kean or had done something to stop it herself then the boys would hate her. Blossom thought they were been idiots but respected their need to keep their pride and did nothing.

'Thanks Blossom, but I have to dry myself and... check something in my locker.' Boomer said holding his books over his pants to try and hide the wet mark which had been left there. 'I'll catch up with you later.' Boomer ran out of the class in the direction of the toilets.

'Ok I was promised food, so lead the way.' Butch said. He was not enjoying the day, and had the strong urge to beat someone up, he had some ideal candidates listed in his mind but could not touch any of them.

'Say the magic word.' Blossom said in the same sweet voice she had used in the morning.

'Take me to the food... Now.' Butch said, he was now only looking forward to food and could not be bothered with fake pleasantries.

'You're as bad as Buttercup; the magic word is please...' Butch just looked at Blossom who waited for an apology or at least for him to say the word. 'Ech, never mind just follow me.' Blossom said, showing Brick and Butch he way to the cafeteria, Bubbles said she would wait for Boomer and show him the way. She sat down in the classroom looking through the open door waiting to see Boomer.

The Blue Rowdy Ruff had finished drying himself off, using the towels and hot air dryer as best he could. Now at least he did not look like he had just wet his pants, now he had only one thing to do before he went to eat. He went to his locker and entered the combination but did not open it right away. He looked all around to make sure no one was looking at him before he opened the metal door. Inside was his backpack, a few books and hidden at the back was a tiny teddy bear. The toy was no bigger then the palm of Boomer's hand, looking scruffy and older then the oldest toy on earth. This was his only toy, a gift from Brick years ago when Boomer had been in a bad spot. He felt so bad about things he had done, especially getting them kicked out the orphanage that he had trouble sleeping at night. Brick had saved up some of the money he got from donations and bought this tiny teddy bear from a charity shop. Ever since then Boomer had kept the small bear with him, and when ever he felt bad he would hold it for a moment. It reminded him that he had two brothers who cared about him, that it was the first gift he had ever been given and that most importantly he was a Rowdy Ruff Boy.

Unfortunately for Boomer as he put his hand in to hold the toy three boys from Miss Kean's class walked by and saw the bear. The first one knocked into Boomer forcing him away from his locker.

'Oops sorry about that chump.' The boy said smiling as he saw Boomer try to get back to his feet. 'I just did not see you standing there, right Mark?' The boy said to one of his friends who proceeded to hold out a hand to Boomer, but extended too far so as to knock him down again.

'Whoops looks like you slipped again buddy.' Mark said laughing; the other boy now could see into the open locker and laughed himself.

'Hey Mark, Joey look at what the baby has in his locker.' The last of the bullies put his hand in and took out the small teddy bear out tossing it to the one called Joey.

'Well what have we got here Tom?' Joey said as he started juggling about with Boomer's beloved toy. 'Looks like the baby is into baby toys.'

'Give that back!' Boomer shouted, his throat filling up with a lump and tears threatening just behind his eye lids. 'Please give it back, its mine!'

'Aww does da baby want his twedy bewer?' Mark said to Boomer in a baby voice; Joey tossed the small toy to Mark who held it up just out of Boomers reach. 'What's the matter, why don't you fly up and get it?' Boomer wished he could, but he had promised not to use his powers and would not break a promise even for his favorite toy.

'Oh look I think he's crying.' Tom said as Boomer lost his control and the tears started to stream from his eyes. 'How does it feel? You made everyone else cry when you tried to kill the Power Puff Girls, so how does it feel now the shoe is on the other foot baby?' Mark threw the small toy to Joey he threw it to Tom and in this triangle kept Boomer running round trying to catch his toy as it move from one bully to the next, but he never could quiet make it. Now there was a circle of people round them watching, most laughing at Boomer who just ran round after his teddy bear, the tears falling freely from his eyes.

'What's going on?' Bubbles asked, she had gotten bored waiting for Boomer in the classroom and had gone to see what was taking him so long. She could see a circle of people most of which were laughing at something. Bubbles wanted to see what was so much fun; all she could see is some hands in the air throwing what looked like a small teddy bear around. She tried to get past but no one moved for here, she was going to give up and go around when she heard Boomer shout again.

'I never did anything to you; just give it back to me!' Bubbles could hardly recognize his voice, the crying turning it into something weak and watery. When she did realize who it was who was shouting Bubbles floated up over the crowd to see what was going on. Now she could see Boomer running himself ragged trying to get his toy back, and three boys she knew, but never really liked, teasing him. Moving quickly Bubbles caught the small teddy bear in mid throw surprising the three bullies.

'Meannies!' Bubbles stuck her tongue out at the three boys as she floated back down to the ground. 'Get lost before I decided to show you Bubblevicious.' Her eyes started to glow red as the laser beams started to charge in them. The three bullies saw this and decided it was best to run; they could handle a powerless Ruff but did not want to try their luck with a Power Puff.

'Baby getting a girl to fight your battles for you!' Joey shouted as he pushed his way out of the crowd and started to run for his life.

'Yeah baby, can't even stand up for your self!' Tom said, he was already half way down the corridor when he shouted that last remark.

'Next time your girlfriend won't be able to help you loser!' Mark said looking at Boomer with such cruelty he made the blond Ruff flinch, even though he was much stronger then Mark ever could be. Bubbles got tired of waiting for Mark to clear off so fired a weak laser blast at his feet which got him moving in a hurry. With him gone the circle of onlookers started to dissipate leaving only Bubbles and Boomer in the hallway.

'Here you go Boomie.' Bubbles said. Boomer was on the floor hugging his knees and keeping his head down to try and hide the tears again. Bubbles knelt down beside him and held out the small teddy bear she had taken off the three bullies. For a while it did not seem that Boomer was going to take it, but eventually he lifted up his head to look at Bubbles. His eyes were red rimmed and he was still crying, his face was bright red as the blood had rushed there and he looked sick. Bubbles felt terrible for him, he did look awful but she knew it was worse for him because of his pride. If something like this happened to her then she would be expected to react like this, Buttercup might think she was been a baby but would still understand. Boomer was a boy and was meant to be tough, never meant to cry and never act the way he had done.

'Why did you do that!?' Boomer surprised Bubbles by shouting at her as his facial expression changed from sadness to anger. 'Why did you have to go and do that!?' Boomer wiped away the tears with both hands as he stood up, his body shaking with rage.

'I... Boomie...what did I do?' Bubbles was taken back, she could not understand why Boomer was shouting at her, she had only helped him out.

'My name is Boomer and not Boomie!' Boomer yelled at Bubbled, his face pushed right up to hers as he did. 'Its bad enough they hated me, it's bad enough they teased me for having a stupid toy but you had to come in and stop it. Now they think I am a sissy, a little girlie boy who has to get girls to fight his battles for him! What do you think my brothers will think when they find out a Rowdy Ruff Boy had to get a Power Puff Girl to stop people teasing him? I HATE YOU!' Boomer shouted the last three words at Bubbles with all the hate and anger in his body, the words he wanted to shout at everyone else but could only find the guts to shout at someone who tried to help him. Boomer felt tears threatening again, his anger giving way to the sadness, so as quickly as he could he ran away from Bubbles to hide somewhere.

Bubbles was left there for a moment feeling numb as she tried to make sense of what had just happened. Boomers last words then came home to her and she to started to cry. She just sat down in the corridor and bawled her eyes out while Boomer was hiding else where doing the exact same thing.

* * *

'Boomer where in the heck are you?' Brick said, he and Blossom had decided that both Bubbles and Boomer were taking to long. Butch had started joking about how they were probably making out some where, while Buttercup said they were probably distracted by something shiny. The two leaders had decided to go and find out where their missing siblings had gone.

'Bubbles, its Blossom where are you?' Blossom yelled out as she walked with Brick down the school hallways. 'I can see Boomer getting lost but Bubbles knows this place inside and out Brick, where could they have gotten to?'

'Shush a second...' Brick said, he had a hand to his ear and was straining to hear something that was close by. '... Sounds like a girl crying, down there.' He pointed to the corridor which lead back to their classroom.

'I can hear it, that's Bubbles!' Blossom said. 'If your brother has hurt her Brick so help me...'

'Hey Boomer wouldn't hurt a fly if he did not have to, so lay off him.' Brick said as he started to jog down the corridor where the crying was coming from, Blossom hovering next to him. The two reached Bubbles who had not moved since she had started to cry, though her tears were now just a trickle.

'Bubbles, what's the matter?' Blossom said as she floated over next to her sister.

'Hey that thing is Boomers.' Brick said as he saw the small teddy bear in Bubbles hands. 'I can't believe he still has that old thing, the baby should really grow up and junk it.' When Bubbles heard Brick call Boomer a baby she started to cry again. 'What did I say?' Brick asked while Blossom did her best to comfort her sister, he could not understand why Bubbles was crying he just decided it must be a "girl thing"

'Bubbles what happened?' Blossom asked when she had finally gotten Bubbles composed enough to speak.

'I was waiting for Boomer when...' Bubbles told the whole story she knew, starting with her looking for Boomer and ending with how he had shouted at her and then ran off. '... He said he hated me, why does he hate me?' Bubbles asked, fresh tears all ready spilling from her eyes.

'Don't worry I am sure Boomer did not mean what he said, he was just really upset after what had happened.' Blossom said. She felt sorry for Boomer, and a little guilty after making him promise not to use his powers at school. Boomer had seemed the nicest of the three boys, an actual human being who had some manners and did not seem aggressive all the time. Now it seemed like the very things that made Boomer nice where the reasons he was suffering so much.

'Well I better go find Boomer.' Brick said, this was not the first time he had to go hunting for Boomer after he had decided to go on a crying fit. He started to walk in the direction Bubbles had sad Boomer ran off in when Blossom stood up.

'I'll go with you.' Blossom said but Brick just shook his head.

'You have your sister to deal with. Besides I think you girls have messed Boomer up enough for one day.' Brick said, leaving the two girls to find his brother.

'What did I do wrong?' Bubbles asked Blossom as she finally regained her composure and was able to get back to her feet.

'Nothing Bubbles, boys are just weird at times.'

* * *

'Boomer, come out wherever you are!' Brick shouted as he started to look in the usual sorts of places Boomer liked to hide in when he lost control of his emotions. He looked in any corners, containers and every empty room for his brother. Eventually he found him curled up in the corner of an empty class room; the quiet little sobs just enough to give him away.

'There you are Boomer, been looking all over for you.' Brick said closing the classroom door behind him.

'Go away Brick, I don't want to talk to you right now.' Boomer said in a muffled voice, he was biting his own hand to try and stop himself from bursting into tears again, something he hated to do in front of his brothers.

'You know you say that every time and I don't listen to you every time.' Brick said, he pulled one of the chairs out from the desk and span it round to face Boomer. Brick sat down and put his head on his hands waiting for Boomer to start.

'So you heard what happened then?' Boomer said after a very long silence.

'Yup, and to be honest I don't really care.' That was a little lie, deep down he felt humiliated as a rowdy ruff had acted like such a baby. 'But I have marked those three idiots; no one messes with a Rowdy Ruff Boy and gets away with it. We just have to wait until the others start to trust us, right now if we did anything we would be kicked out of town.'

'I don't want to leave Townsville again, that's why I held back.' This was almost the truth; the rest was that Boomer never wanted to break a promise. 'But I had to be saved by a girl Brick, that's the worst thing.'

'It's not brilliant, but you did not ask for help and there was nothing else you could have done... so it could be a lot worse.' Brick also hated the idea that Boomer had been saved by a girl, Bubbles no less. 'The only thing I really care about is the fact you're sitting here in the dark crying like a little baby.'

'I'm not crying Brick.' Boomer said as he took his hand out of his mouth, little beads of blood ringed around where his teeth had sunk in.

'Then stand up and face me Boomer.' Brick said. 'Come on Boomer are you a Rowdy Ruff Boy or not? Rowdy Ruff's never give up, never lose and they never cry so if you are one stand up and look at me.' Brick knew just what to say to make Boomer pull himself together, he knew it was tougher then what Blossom must have to do for Bubbles but it was the only way he knew how and worked.

'I am a Rowdy Ruff Boy!' Boomer said as he stood up and turned round to look at Brick, his face still puffed up from the crying and his eyes still red but he had stopped crying.

'Good to have you back with us Boomer.' Brick said as he jumped off the chair and put a hand on Boomer's shoulder. 'Now I know its tough, but we're Rowdy's and we can take anything no matter how tough. Put up with the idiots a little longer, stand tall and just remember what group you belong to. We have two more lessons left today, then this living heck ends for us and we can go home. So what do you say, can you act like a Rowdy Ruff Boy until we at least make it home?'

'Yes Brick, I promise you I will make it through the day like a true Rowdy Ruff.' Boomer said. Brick just nodded as if he expected no less, and he did not expect anything less then that. He took his hand off Boomer and left to go to the next class, Boomer stood there for a moment more praying to anyone who would listen that the day would not get any worse.


	4. breakout

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 4

Breakout

(Authors note, for Him whenever effeminate voice is used it is plain text, bold text is Him's demonic voice. I am looking for a proof reader and editor, if you are interested please email me or mention in a review.)

The city of Townsville, where the hideout of the three evil Rowdy Ruff Boys is the abandoned sport-arena. The three have been here since they were forced to flee from the Power Puff Girls and the good Rowdy Ruff's. In this time Brick had gone on a rampage, his anger had overflowed in a chaotic destruction that had cost the lives of three innocent people. The fine thread of sanity had snapped when his goal had been snatched away from him at the last second. His two brothers had decided it best for their health to just stay quiet and keep out of the way while Brick had vented his rage at anything he could touch. But now after almost a full day of anarchy and devastation Brick had calmed himself enough for some rational thoughts.

'Butch, Boomer get over here now.' Brick said as he put his red jacket back on, he could not even remember taking it off at some point. His two brothers instantly appeared next to him, right now they were sure not been perfectly obedient would end up with them been killed.

'What's up Brick?' Butch asked. He had been angry at been forced to run like a coward but had done nothing like Brick. Butch had settled for smashing a few rocks and swearing up a storm, his tantrum only lasting a few hours but Brick had out done him in everyway. He was not sure if he should be worried or proud.

'Those things caused us to fall back; we need to know what they are.' Brick said.

'They 'aren't us boss.' Butch said. 'They must be some kind of trick, a hologram or robots or something. The Powder Poof Girls were down for the count so they cheated with some trick and…' Butch instantly slammed his mouth closed, he had come close to saying that Brick had fallen for it. Butch thought he had just gotten away with it but Brick had marked it, and he had a long memory.

'Maybe it was alien pod people who have come to replace us!' Boomer shouted out, he had been watching horror movies for months now and they were starting to affect him. He saw aliens, monsters, psycho killers and other terrors all the time now, but his paranoia was nothing to Bricks.

'I don't care where they came from only how powerful they are.' Brick said. 'If they are clones, or robots or something of that sort then we might be in trouble. We could handle the Power Puff Girls with our hands tied behind our backs… but their power combined with true copies of us… we would be annihilated. Also there is a problem with possible infiltration, that must be rectified right now. From now on if you are not sure if one of us is really us then ask the question "Who is the best, Rowdy's or Puff's?" if your asked that then answer "Neither, only time will tell." And that should stop infiltration. Also to avoid any stupid confusion we are going to change our names, from now on Boomer is called Blaster, Butch you can be Blaze and I will be called Brimstone.'

'But I like the name Butch.' Butch said, again only realising the mistake after it was too late for him to stop.

'You are called Blaze from now until I say otherwise, we will not go through some idiotic confusion with names. I can't count on our counterparts renaming themselves so we have to do it.' Brimstone said. 'Which leads to the next point, we need to know our enemies, knowledge is power after all.'

'I say we attack them head on, call their bluff and walk right through it!' Blaster said, he like Blaze thought it was a trick and that if they called it the girls would be dead before sun down.

'To risky Blaster, if they are clones or robots or some damned thing then going head on might lead to use getting creamed.' Brimstone hated the unknown; it was the one thing that could truly slow him down. If he knew what he was against he could find a way to defeat it, but with out that knowledge he was next to useless. 'If they have anywhere near our power, or even the power of those girl's we would not stand a chance in a head on battle. Now what we need is to draw them out, force them to show their whole hand to us with out putting ourselves at risk.'

'How do we do that Bri… Brimstone?' Blaze asked.

'We encourage some people to help us out Blaze.' Brimstone said as he started to walk out of the old sky box and head off into the sky.

'Where are you going?' Blaze shouted after Brimstone.

'Stay here, I need to check some plans out…' Brimstone shouted back just before he turned into a red beam of light. His two brothers left behind with out a single clue on what he was planning.

'What is he up to Blaze?' Blaster said.

'I don't know, but someone is going to be in a whole lot of pain after he's done... I can't wait.'

* * *

'So how was your first day at school then boys?' Professor Utonium asked as Brick, Butch and Boomer came into the house after school had ended.

'We've had better days.' Brick said, he felt physically and emotionally drained after sitting through even more torture. Butch was not so bad; he just felt the need to beat the stuffing out of someone. Boomer was still feeling horrible after the scene in the hallway, for shouting at Bubbles and acting like a baby.

'Professor I think its best to leave the subject alone.' Blossom said as she walked into the house.

'Rough first day huh?' Professor Utonium said with no idea how bad the day had been for the boys. 'Well no worries, people will just take time to get used to you is all, I am sure in no time you will make friends. But I have something to take your minds off school, go check out your room boys.' The three boys went in the direction of their room with no real zeal; the day had taken a heavy toll on them all. When they did finally reach the room the found the Professor had completely redecorated it since they had been gone. The walls were all painted blue, the beds were new and had sheet colours to match their owners personal taste, there were three chests of draws, a table with a computer on it, a neat pile of fresh clothes, a small mirror with three combs, toothbrushes etc, a hotline phone, a small radio and a box of toys beside each rowdy's bed.

'Wow look at this stuff!' Brick said in amazement as he walked into the room which when he left had been as dull as Him is evil. The red Ruff walked to his bed to look at the new clothes he had been given each set matching his old clothes perfectly.

'Hey cool I got some weights.' Butch said, he had gone to the box of toys at the end of his bed and found them all perfect for him. The Professor had simply thought what Buttercup would have liked if she was a boy, and found very little difference in what he bought her normally.

'Look at all the toys we have, I have never seen so many in my life.' Boomer said, he was sifting through his hoard of action figures and colouring books like a poor man through a mound of money. The thought of toys reminded him that after all that had happened he had forgotten all about his small teddy bear, he had left it with Bubbles after he had run off.

'We have got to thank the Prof for the stuff, I mean look at this… "Eliminator 4000 assault space rifle of doom mark nine point six!" I could do some seriously cool stuff with this.' Butch said as he swung the toy gun round, tempted to see what each button and trigger did. 'Hey Boomer, yo earth to Boomer, come in Boomer… Boomer wake the heck up!' Butch shouted at Boomer who had stopped moving as he went deep into thought, he was not always the sharpest tool in the box but when Boomer stopped thinking about everything else he could come up with some scarily smart ideas. Even Brick had noticed that if Boomer went into a trance like the one he was in he could make revelations that even their leader could not have thought of.

'Whoa, sorry Butch I was just thinking about something I forgot to do today… I'll be right back guys.' Boomer said. He jumped out of the box of toys and left the room with his two brothers just watching him with mystified expressions on their faces.

'What's up with him?' Butch asked Brick who just shrugged and went on investigating his new possessions.

* * *

Bubbles was sitting outside when Boomer found her, she was lying on the grass drawing something on a small piece of paper. Boomer walked outside keeping as quiet as he could, he could see Bubbles was concentrating as hard as he had been earlier and unlike most people he knew it was best to let it run its course. He thought of it as been in the zone, and when he was there he could do nearly anything and do it perfectly right. When he was outside he just sat on the grass behind Bubbles and waited for her to finish. He did not have to wait long before the focused look in Bubbles eyes started to fade as she slowed down her work and started to get distracted by what was going on around her.

'What are you drawing?' Boomer asked when he felt sure she was completely out of the zone, forgetting he had basically snuck up to her. Bubbles jumped a little as she span round to see Boomer sitting there.

'Boomer?' She sounded confused but quickly regained herself and grabbed at the picture holding it close to her chest so Boomer could not see it. 'Don't look at the picture it's not done yet. When it's done I'll give it to you but please don't look at it before it's done.'

'Is that picture for me?' Boomer asked, and Bubbles nodded. 'Why would you draw a picture for me?'

'To say sorry for earlier, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings you know.' Bubbles said as she moved the picture out the way so she would not scrunch it up against her chest.

'You wanted to apologise to me? But I came to say sorry to you Bubbles; after all I am the one who acted like a total jerk.' Boomer said. 'I did not mean to shout at you, it was just that I felt so horrible I had to shout at someone and you were the only person there I could. I am really sorry, I don't hate you at all Bubbles.'

'I know that silly, who could hate me?' Bubble said with a huge smile across her face. 'Oh that reminds me, I still have your teddy bear.' She reached into her pockets and dug out the small bedraggled teddy bear Boomer had owned for almost his entire life.

'My bear…' Boomer held his hand out to take the small toy then stopped. 'No you keep it Bubbles; I really should have stopped holding that a long time ago. You take it and look after it for me.'

'You want me to have your favourite toy?' Bubbles tried to think of giving up Octi to some one and just could not do it. 'But it's yours and you love it. I have loads of toys already and you said sorry so there really is no need.'

'Yeah there is, I was a first class jerk to you.' Boomer said. 'So you take him, and as long as you keep it to yourself I do love that old toy. It was the first toy present I was ever given and I have looked after him ever since, he's sort of been my lucky charm. Now I need to make my own luck, and as long as you have him it can be a promise between us. I promise never to act like I did this morning, and if you ever need my help I'll give it no questions asked.'

'Thank you Boomie, that's really sweet.' Boomer went bright red when Bubbles said this.

'Your welcome Bubbles, but please call me Boomer and not Boomie.' Boomer said averting his eyes and trying desperately to stop his blushing.

'Ok Boomer, I promise to call you by your full name from now on… and not to call you cute and sweet… at least not in front of your brothers.'

'Thanks Bubbles.' Boomer stood up cleaning the grass that had stuck to him while he sat down. When he was reasonably clean he started to go back inside to finish checking out the new stuff he had been given, and quite likely thank the Professor for it. But just at the door he stopped and looked back at Bubbles.

'You will take good care of it wont you?' Boomer asked, his face filled with concern and worry.

'I promise to look after it with my life Boomer.' Bubbles said with her hand over her heart, holding back the giggles that were threatening to burst out. Boomer smiled in relief as he went back inside the house.

* * *

'So this is the big house, not quite as impressive as I was expecting it to be.' Blaze said. He and his brothers were now hovering a few miles above the world's greatest prison, a fortress which held Townsville's most dangerous criminals. It was built by the worlds top minds, its defences tested by the Power Puff Girls themselves and found impervious.

'Err, how are we going to get in there Brimstone?' Blaster asked. Brimstone had shown up early in the morning declaring they were going to break the prison wide open. They would use the inmates to test the Power puff Girls out, that way they need not even get a scratch or even work up a sweat.

'Quite simple Blaster, we kill everyone here who tries to stop us, anything gets in out way and we smash it. When we get past the outer defences it's a free for all slaughter, just make sure to keep a few eyes and hands in tact… and any security passes, why waste energy on doors right? When we reach the central core we open it up any way we can, that is the mission any questions.' Brimstone asked. Blaze smiled happy at the idea of mindless destruction and Blaster was not only look forward to the mayhem but the fact it sounded so easy.

'Right on!' Blaze said punching the air. 'We finally get to kick some butt!'

'Rowdy Ruff's attack!' Brimstone yelled out as he started to dive at the prison, his eye lasers firing before he even got close.

'This is going to rock!' Blaze said. He flew down and attacked the prison with his bare hands, ripping a guard tower up and throwing it in the direction of the main town.

'Last one to a million points is a Power Puff Girl!' Blaster yelled out before he joined his brothers in the demolition of Townsville prison.

The prison was built to keep everyone in, but a few of its designers had thought a jail brake possible for the outside. So the prison was set into three sections, the outer arc, the inner compound and the core. The core was a solid prison made of the hardest metal known to man, specially designed for this purpose. It held the prisoners who could not escape it no matter how hard they tried. If somehow one did escape the core then the inner compound was designed to help stop them, it was where mostly the guards worked alone with other staff. Shear numbers added with automated weapons were thought enough to handle even the toughest inmate. If by a miracle they did make it past there the outer arc was the final obstacle. Inside it was a solid wall covered in a dome force field much like the one that covered Monster Island. Outside was enough fire power and automated defences to hold back a small army, and right now the Rowdy Ruff Boy's were tearing it apart.

The outer arc was the best chance to stop the three boys, but their powers and skills were too much for the system to keep up with. They moved about so fast the lock on sensors could never catch them in time to fire even a single shot. The offensive abilities of the fortress were destroyed in a matter of minutes, leaving only the wall and force field to stop the Ruff's.

'Blaster, breach their defences!' Brimstone shouted as the last laser cannon crumbled in his hands like it was made of wet tissue paper.

'Yes sir!' Blaster said. The blue Rowdy looked at the wall for a moment as he gathered his strength then unleashed his special attack. Taking in a deep breath he launched a sonic boom attack, the wave of sound so strong it was enough to pulverize rocks, bend steel and shatter bones in the human body. The sound waves struck the wall and the force field, both of which held up strong for all most a full thirty seconds. But slowly both started to buckle, the energy the field needed tripling then reaching its maximum while the stone in the wall shattered and the steel inside began to bend for the force. By the time a full minute had gone by the force field shattered into a billion particles of light as its generators overloaded and exploded, the steel wall bent down until it touch top touched the ground leaving a massive hole in the outer arc.

'Their defences are broke, let the slaughter begin!' Brimstone yelled out as the wall finally crumbled before him. His brothers followed him into the inner compound, they were greeted by every guard there was ready and firing everything they had.

'Bonus points if you kill the staff!' Blaze shouted as he saw the non-combatant staff running for cover.

'None are to live to tell the tale, everyone dies!' Brimstone shouted out as he dodged a laser blast aimed for his head. He retaliated by breathing out a huge fire ball which caught at least ten guards, ten men who burned like dry leaves. And so began the heartless massacre of every single worker at the prison. The boys started by attacking the front line defence with everything they had, as soon as that had been destroyed the guards were left in a panic and easy picking for them. They were deaf to all the screams for mercy; they made no distinction between those who stood and fought and those who begged on their knees, all they cared for was the murder of anyone that was in their reach. The end was inevitable, they guards never even hit a Rowdy Ruff Boy, the three were just too powerful and skilled for them. In less time then it took for the police to receive a SOS from the prison every worker had been killed by the three boys.

'That was easy enough, so much for been an unbeatable prison.' Blaze said as he threw down the last of the dead guards like used garbage.

'They were fools to stand against my will, the will of their God.' Brimstone said. He had killed more then either one of his brothers had managed, his hands covered in the blood of men and women who had crossed his path.

'Lets get the bozos out of their box, there's no more fun here.' Blaster said.

'Yes, the stink of failure fills this place and it makes me sick.' Brimstone said before leading his brothers past the last of the outer arc and into the central core. This was a single large metal cube which housed the defeated criminals, made of a metal called 'Adamantium.' after a comic book metal. It was thought to be practically invincible, able to take extreme heat and pressure beyond all other materials found on earth. Before the criminals had been put into it the Power Puff Girls had tried their best to destroy a large slab of the metal, all they had managed to do was cause a large dent after an hour of working on it.

'So this is where the losers are held.' Blaze said. He kicked the metal door feeling it give not an inch despite the force he put behind the blow.

'Yes, this is it.' Brimstone said. 'They made it out of a super tough metal, and after tests were sure that it would hold against anything. They were fools, the metal is tough but they missed the weakness in their design. A solid box may prove difficult even for us, but this is far from solid.' Brimstone touched the edge of the door, the weakest point in the entire system, it was enough to hold back the idiots in side because of the energy field inside the box but outside was left undefended. The door was used to get new prisoners in as well as their food, so there seemed no need to put a field round this side as it was the one the guards used.

'So we shall we knock or just let ourselves in?' Blaster asked.

'We will let ourselves in.' Brimstone said as he started to fire his energy beams at the door, both the eye laser and his hand blast topped with his fire breath. Blaster joined him with eye lasers and hand blasts, but used his sonic boom ability in addition. Blaze having no special power made do with just using his eye beams and hand blast. The power of the three boys combined was a force so strong even the Adamantium could not resist it, the heat caused its atoms to expand weakening its hold on its own hinges, the force started to push it in buckling it in the centre and pulling it away from the wall. The invincible door lasted a total of three minutes before the attack finally overwhelmed it, the metal door flung off its hinges and crashed through the force field with enough force to shatter it. Now the impregnable fortress had been fully breeched.

'Whoa what was that?' Ace asked as the door narrowly missed him as it crashed through.

'I gots no idea.' Fuzzy said.

'It seems we have guests, how nice for us.' Him said in his deeply feminine voice. 'Oh do come in.' The three Rowdy Ruff Boys walked into the cell and now could see all of the worst criminals to ever reach Townsville, from regular powerless crooks to super villains like Him.

'I do not believe it, that is to say I can not accept the fact that you three are alive, because you are dead thus not alive and been dead could not be here and so I MoJo JoJo refuse to admit that it is you that are here, in this location because you are dead.' MoJo JoJo said when he saw the three boys he had created years ago, they looked different in appearance now but he recognised them strait away.

'If we 'aint here then who the hell just busted this prison wide open?' Blaze asked looking on MoJo with contempt.

'Yes, I should have seen that my brilliance could not have been defeated so easily, that my perfect plan to the defeat the Power Puff Girls could not be defeated by the Power Puff Girls because it was meant to defeat them. And as it was perfect it could not be stopped by those who it was meant to stop!' MoJo said in a very long winded way. 'Now you are back, that is to say you have returned for a location that was not here, you can take over Townsville for me!'

'Why would we take over Townsville for you?' Blaster asked.

'Insolence!' A short sentence for MoJo for once that was brought by his anger at his creation questioning him. 'I am the one who created you, that is to say my ideas and actions lead to your coming into being. So I MoJo JoJo am your maker, the one who made you, and as the one who made you, you are mine to use that is to say you three belong to me.'

'We belong to nobody, but you belong to us.' Brimstone said. 'You are all now ours to do with as we see fit, you live only to serve my bidding and nothing else.'

'And what if we say no?' This came from the false hero Major Man. 'What if we tell you to go take a hike, what are you going to do then little boy?' Major Man signed his death warrant as he pushed Brimstone's shoulder, he may have well just put a gun to his head and pulled the trigger. The Rowdy Ruff's needed no instructions for their leader, there was only one possible outcome and so with out speaking they acted. Major Man had only a second to realise he had made the worst mistake of his life before six beams of killer light hit him at once. The three Ruff's concentrated their eye beams on Major Man who was killed instantly by the intense heat. His flesh burned away and turned to ash and when the beams stopped only a black skeleton remained.

'Does anyone else have a problem following my commands?' Brimstone asked as he kicked the skull of Major Man into the wall turning it into black powder. Not a single person spoke up; they all just stared at the three boys who so coldly killed a man. 'Good, at least you're not all complete idiots. I have many things you are to do for me, but before we begin I have one order… worship me.' Brimstone's eyes flared open with mad joy; he saw himself as a God and now had his worshipers. He dealt out life and death at his whim, he had power and he was mad enough to think himself almighty and now could enjoy the position. Reluctantly one by one the prisoners got on their knees and began to worship the red Rowdy Ruff.

* * *

The Power Puff Girls and the Rowdy Ruff Boys were at school while the prison was been torn apart by the evil Ruff's. This day was going no better for the three boys, but was even worse for Boomer after the story of previous day had spread around. Bubbles now understood why Boomer had been so upset when she had helped him out, it was mostly because of this the class was focusing its bullying on him. They were saved from any further taunts when the hotline phone rang for the first time since it had been installed in the classroom.

'Power Puff Girls what's the problem Mayor?' Blossom had answered the phone before the first ring had even finished.

'Oh Blossom its horrible, the worst thing that has ever happened… I just can't tell you.' Mayor J. Mayor seemed genuinely in shock; after he heard the news even his thick skull had let it through. Over one hundred dead at best guess and the count was growing still.

'Girls it Miss Bellum.' The Mayor had handed the hotline over, unable to say anymore to Blossom. 'We need your help right now, people have been killed…'

'That's horrible, how many and where?' Blossom was shocked, the last murder in Townsville had been almost a year ago and she thought it more likely an accident then anything else.

'We think… oh its awful but we think over a hundred people have been killed by the Rowdy Ruff Boys.' Blossom quickly looked at the three boys who sat at their desks still with their entire focus on her. Blossom could not remember a tragedy as big as that in Townsville, more then a hundred people dead by the hands of just three boys. 'They attacked Townsville maximum security prison and somehow managed to take it, they have let out all of the inmates and they are now attacking the city. We have stretched every resource but at this rate the entire city will be destroyed!'

'Don't worry we are on it.' Blossom said hanging up the phone.

'Well what's up? Did the evil Rowdy's show up again?' Buttercup asked Blossom who looked a little ill, but Buttercup ignored that fact.

'Yes they have shown up… we can talk about this on the way.' Blossom said to Buttercup, then to the three Rowdy Ruff Boys. 'We are going to need your help.' The three boys jumped out of their seats, all to glad for the chance to get out of the class from hell, what they did not know was they were going from one hell to another.

* * *

'My God, how could they do this?' Brick said as he looked down on the smouldering remains of the great prison.

'Its awful, all those people are de…de…' Bubbles could not say it, her eyes filled with tears and she started to cry.

'I say we find those three and kick their butts!' Butch shouted.

'Hate to say it but I am with green boy here, lets find those Ruff's and teach them why it's not wise to mess with the Power Puff Girls.' Buttercup said smashing her right hand into her left.

'No, we can't go searching for them right now… we have other problems to deal with.' Brick said.

'Who died and put you in charge?' Buttercup asked Brick.

'He's right Buttercup, the prisoners are rioting all over town, and we have to stop them before it's too late.' Blossom said. Buttercup glared at her sister for a moment but eventually backed down.

'Fine, you call the shots Leader girl.' Buttercup said.

'Ok we will all have to split up and search for where the criminals are…' Blossom started to say but Boomer stopped her. He had been quiet so far as he had been trying to control his own emotions, like Bubbles he was made sick seeing the destruction the evil Ruff's had caused but unlike her he could not let that show.

'There is no need to search for them… MoJo is five miles to the east; Princess is half a mile north by north east, the Gang Green Gang is to the south about a mile and three quarters, Boogie-man is waiting in the dark of the old mine shafts, Sedussa is attacking the centre of town and the amoeba boys are hiding behind that tree over there.' Boomer said pointing to a large tree where the three Amoeba boys wee trying to hide.

'How do you know that huh?' Buttercup asked Boomer. 'You in cahoots with them or something?'

'Relax kid, Boomer's special powers include some kind of sixth sense. He could find a needle in a haystack with no trouble, and has never been unable to find us… which makes hide and seek and real drag.' Butch said.

'Ok I'll buy that story… for now.' Buttercup said moving her deadly glare from Boomer and putting it on Butch. 'And what is with this kid stuff? I have you know I am older then you are.'

'Well you dress like a kid, still wearing pretty little girly dresses and such.' Butch replied with a mean smile across his face.

'Hey what does what I wear have to do with anything? I am a girl dumb-dumb so I can wear dresses and such if I want to!'

'I never knew you had such a soft feminine side, maybe from now on I should call you Fluffy or something like that.' Butch said holding back the laughter that threatened to come spewing out his mouth like vomit.

'Try it and I will give you a knuckle sandwich that will send you back to next week.' Buttercup said shaking her fist at Butch.

'What ever you say Fluff…' He was stopped as Boomer put a hand over his mouth, possibly saving Butch from getting his head knocked off.

'Sorry Buttercup but Butch's mouth sometimes runs when he stressed or upset. I apologise for him.' Boomer said as he let go of Butch's mouth.

'Stressed or upset?' Butch asked as he moved his attention for Buttercup and back to his brother. 'Who says I'm stressed or upset…? I am as cool as they come, put water in my mouth and I will spit ice cubes out for you.'

'Whatever you say Butch, but we don't have time for you and Buttercup to slug it out right now.' Brick said. 'We have a lot of super villains running riot right now and a small army of regular crooks. Now we should deal with the big threats first, I think the police and army should easily hold back the normal criminals. But it's your call Blossom, your still in charge.' Brick noticed Butch wince when he said that, he knew Butch still loathed the fact that the whole group was controlled by Blossom but would tolerate it for a little longer at least.

'Your right Brick, we have to deal with the big threats first and as quickly as possible.' Blossom said. 'We will split up, Ruff's go after one villain and Puff's go after another. You boys can go after MoJo, the Gangue Green Gang and Boogie-man while we will go after everyone else. Try not to kill anyone, just incapacitate them and let the authorities deal with them later. When you're done come back here and we can decide what to do next.' Blossoms orders matched what Brick wanted to do exactly apart from one thing. The girls were letting them go after the least dangerous of all the criminals at large, Boogie-man was stuck in the dark, the Gangue Green Gang were as dangerous as street hoodlums and MoJo was only a threat with technology and all of his had been destroyed after his capture.

'Ok then, we'll go after MoJo JoJo, the Gangue Green Gang and Boogie-man as you order.' Brick said before he blasted off into the sky leaving a trail of red light behind him.

'Don't think I don't see what your doing girly, sending us off to fight the losers… if Brick had not told me not to I would have kicked your butt for that.' Butch said to Blossom with all the spite he could muster. Butch started down Blossom for a short period of time and then flew off after Brick leaving Boomer behind.

'You still don't trust us do you?' Boomer asked the three girls, he tried to hide the hurt in his voice but could not help it come out. Before any of the girls could answer Boomer flew off following the trail left by Brick and Butch.

* * *

The boys made short work out of Boogie-man, all it took was dragging him out of the mine shaft he was hiding in and let the sun take care of him. It took even less effort for them to stop the Gangue Green Gang; a few quick attacks left those guys out for the count. Butch spent the whole time complaining about Blossom sending them after weaklings, that at this rate he would never get a chance to show what he was made of.

'I mean look at these muscles, I am more ripped then Superman and I waste it all fighting these idiots.' Butch said dropping Ace on to the ground after pounding his face into a wall.

'I know how you feel Butch, but if we don't follow Blossom's orders now she will never trust us.' Brick said. 'And we did promise the Professor to follow her orders to the letter, and if we don't owe the girls anything we at least owe the Professor. So Butch you are going to have to just deal with it, until Blossom learns to trust us we will be nothing more then glorified sidekicks.'

'That just sucks Brick.' Butch said getting only a shrug from his leader. 'Well were done with these dimwits. Boomer where is the old monkey, I bet he will be surprised to see us again.'

'MoJo JoJo is um…' Boomer looked around trying to feel out where the mad Monkey was. 'Oh I have him; he is just outside our school.'

'The school hey… maybe we should wait a while, with any luck he will blow it up with those jerks inside.' Butch said smiling like a mad man.

'No Butch we cant do that!' Boomer shouted.

'Why not?' Butch asked Boomer. 'They deserve it, or have you forgotten how they have been treating us recently?'

'That's no reason to let them be killed Butch and you know it.' Boomer said.

'He's right Butch, and if we did let them die it would not do very much to convince the girls we are not evil.' Brick said. 'Come on lets get this over with.'

* * *

'As much as I hate working for those ungrateful runts I have to admit that this is fun.' MoJo JoJo said as his RoboJoJo crushed another building with a well placed missile. They had thought that all his technology was destroyed after his capture, but sensing the danger ahead he had quickly acted and put a few of his best inventions into storage. 'After all the years of incarceration where my freedom was not given, my ability to do as I wish denied and not been allowed to do that which I enjoy, that is to say take enjoyment from the act of doing, this rampage is one of my best, the top of the lot and over all better then any pervious events of the same nature.'

'Stop right there.' Brick shouted from above MoJo before firing his eye laser beams, the twin rays of light simply bounced off the reflective metal armour of the robot.

'What is this?' MoJo said. ' It appears that these are the good rowdy Ruff Boys, the opposite to the evil ones which are currently making me attack Townsville and if you ask me are all fruit-loops. Well if I can't get the not good Rowdy Ruffs, that is to say the evil versions of these boys that are attacking me now then I… whoa!' MoJo was stopped by the whole robot shaking violently to the right.

'You talk to much monkey.' Butch said as he rammed into the side of the robot as hard as he could causing it to stumble back a few paces. 'You might be laser proof but I bet you 'aint knuckle sandwich proof!' Butch once again attacked the robot hitting it with a powerful haymaker punch which very nearly toppled the colossal robot.

'Stupid little punk, very well I will say this in less words hen I usually use when forming complete and proper sentences which is…' MoJo was sent flying from his seat as Butch made another punch into the head of the robot, and despite its thick armour the power in the punch made a large dent appear.

'If you would just shut up a fight you might stand a chance here… I would not bet on it but still you have to try to win.' Butch said as he finished off with a quick side kick to the robots midsection before he moved off to a safe distance.

'My turn!' Boomer yelled as he flew at the Robot like an attack missile.

'I will take your advice and shut up while destroy you!' MoJo got back into his seat just in time to see Boomer attacking. He flicked a switch which put up a force field around the Robot, Boomer smashed head first into it and bounced off his head left throbbing.

'Butch keep him busy while I take care of the force field!' Brick yelled as he quickly dodged a barrage of missiles to go behind the enormous robot.

'And I thought you would give me something worth my power… oh well, come on monkey man lets see what you got.' Butch fired his eye laser beams at the blue field which encased MoJo and his robot. The twin beams did nothing to the powerful shield, not even when Butch pushed to his maximum and the red blasts covered the whole of the robot did it make a dent in the shield.

'Give up; there is no way you can get through my force field!' MoJo gloated from the safety of the cockpit.

'Not today MoJo JoJo!' Brick said from behind the robot. MoJo had time to turn it round to look at the red Ruff before the attack came at him. Brick had used the time Butch had bought him to build up a huge amount of static electricity. The charge flashed brightly in his hands, with enough power to keep a city running for a year and more then enough to overload the force field protecting MoJo. Brick fired the attack at the shield and watched as the bolt of electricity hit with pin point accuracy, the power causing the shield generators to explode and leave MoJo vulnerable again.

'Let's finish this off.' Butch said. The Green Ruff launched himself with his fist out in a punch, aiming for the back knee of the robot. Brick saw his brothers attack too late to act, but he tried to stop him any way.

'Butch stop you idiot or you will…' He did not get to finish as Butch's punch made contact with the robots knee and caused it to buckle under his strength. The giant robot fell like Goliath had done the delicate balance it had once completely lost. Butch now could see what Brick had tried to warn him about, the robot was now falling directly where the school was with the students and teachers still inside. Butch tried to move in and stop what he had done but it was too late, the robot was falling to fast and he could not recover so soon after an attack. Brick had kept his distance when he charged up the attack and could never make it there before the robot hit the school, it seemed like all was lost, but the robot stopped in mid fall.

'What the heck?' Butch asked no one in particular, it looked like the robot had stopped falling in midair with no reason at all.

'I could use some help here!' Boomer said with a strained voice. He was holding the robot up by himself, stopping it from crashing onto the school. Butch and Brick moved without hesitating, taking the weigh of the robot and forcing it the other way.

'I thought you were down for the count there Boomer.' Butch said as the robot fell safely onto the road.

'After hitting my head, you hit me over the head harder then that Butch.' Boomer said rubbing the spot he had hit the field, it had only stunned him but he had thought it best to stay down in case he could trick MoJo. When he had seen the robot about to hit the school Boomer had been able to make it just in time, taking the whole weight of MoJo's robot. Now he let Butch take care of the same monkey which had created them in the first place. A few seconds alone with Butch left MoJo seeing stars and in need of some serious dental work.

'Ok that's the lot for us, we are to head back and meet the girls again at the prison… come on guys.' Brick said. The three Rowdy Ruff Boys flew off leaving a battered and bruised MoJo JoJo for the police to deal with.

* * *

Back at the Prison the boys had been waiting well over and hour before the three Power Puff Girls came back. They looked worn out and beaten after facing the worst of Townsville's super criminals, while the boys had hardly broken a sweat dealing with the weaklings.

'Did you get all the ones we sent you after?' Blossom asked when she landed, no hello or asking how they were, just if they did as they were told.

'Yeah, it was not hard after all you sent us after losers.' Butch said earning him a sharp look from Brick, but Butch had been unable to help himself there he had in fact sugar coated what he wanted to say.

'Good, now we have everyone I want to know why your evil halves did this in the first place.' Blossom asked Brick as if he knew everything his other side did.

'I don't know why they did this, maybe they thought it would get one of us killed… or maybe just testing our powers and forcing us to show trump cards.' Brick said. 'Like it or not Blossoms I am not my evil side, I don't know what he is thinking or what he might do next.'

'I just want to go home; I'm tired and sweaty from the fighting.' Bubbles said.

'Sorry but there is another three hours of school still to go before you can go home and rest.' Buttercup said, she felt like going to school as much as been stuck in a room with Butch but there was no way round it.

'Well if we have everyone major I think the police force can handle the rest so let's head back to class.' Blossom said sounding more exhausted now then ever. Brick felt no pity for her; she had made a tactical mistake because she did not trust him and his brothers.

'Wait I can feel something.' Boomer said. 'It was hidden before, with the chaos going on but not I can feel it clearly. A demon that thinks of itself as "Him" is attacking the middle of Townsville.' Boomer looked out to the city, where in his eyes there seemed to be a large cloud of blackness, this was almost pure evil.

'Him… we should have remembered he was here. Ok Girls looks like we have one more fight before we go back to school.' Blossom said to her sisters as she readied her self to fly off and fight Him.

'No way I know about Him, and in your condition your no match for Him!' Brick said holding Blossom's arm tightly stopping her flying away. 'We can go with you and deal with Him; it's the best tactical move.'

'We don't need your help, we have beaten Him more times then I can count and we can beat him again.' Buttercup said forcing Bricks hand off Blossom's arm.

'Buttercup's right, we have defeated Him before so there is no need for you follow us, and that's an order Brick.' Blossom said.

'And what are we meant to do oh glorious leader?' Butch asked through clenched teeth.

'You can capture the amoeba boys if you like; they are still hiding behind that tree over there.' Blossom said as she pointed to the same tree the three amoeba boys had been hidden behind since the prison break.

'You have got to be kidding.' Boomer said, looking at the three incompetent criminals, but he was talking to thin air as the three girls had already flown off to fight Him.


	5. hardcore

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 5

Hardcore

(Authors note: for the voice of Him, plain text indicates effeminate voice while bold text indicates demonic voice.)

The city of Townsville, flying high above this city the Power Puff Girls head for where it's most feared villain lies in wait. For six months this city has lived peacefully, but this had ended when the Rowdy Ruffs returned for their revenge. Three boys with powers equal to the cities protectors have now released every other criminal plunging the city back into its most chaotic time. But thanks to the work of the Power Puff Girls and the good side of the Rowdy Ruff Boys almost the entire city is safe again, only one remains and that is Him.

The red demon, which personifies evil its self, floats in the middle of an empty street awaiting its victims. Him has been nurturing its hate for the Power Puff's for a long time now, the only ones Him hates more now are the Rowdy Ruff Boys who humiliated him by forcing him to worship them like gods, and this hate is now ready to be unleashed to its full devastating force.

Three beams of colored light streak across the sky above Him's head, one pink, one green and one blue, which symbolizes the arrival of the Power Puff Girls.

'So they found me at last, I thought I would have to put up a flashing neon sign to get their attention.' Him said in his misleadingly feminine voice. '**Now the fun begins.**' His eyes flashed with fire as his truer voice came out, the voice of a devil.

The three girls landed in front of Him, each looking like they had been fighting for hours and had the energy of snails left.

'Why hello girls, is been such a long time since I have seen you.' Him said. 'So how are you this fine day?'

'We're not here to play your mind games Him; we are here to kick your butt!' Buttercup shouted at the demon who just kept smiling.

'Yeah you red meannie.' Bubbles said.

'Why not make it easy on your self and give up?' Blossom said.

'Oh girls I did miss your little jokes.' Him said giggling like a school girl. 'Why would I give up when right now you three are as weak as kittens?'

'I'll show you weak as kittens!' Buttercup charged Him before Blossom could stop her. Blossom could tell Him wanted them to attack first, and now Buttercup was going off half cocked and into an obvious trap.

'**That's it hit me with everything you have.'** Him watched Buttercup with greedy eyes, waiting for just the right moment before rolling gracefully to one side. Buttercup zoomed past Him harmlessly; this only made her become angrier as she instantly attacked again. Him just side stepped out of the way of a flying kick which left Buttercup wide open for an attack, yet Him did nothing but taunt her.

'Is that all you have, oh dear Buttercup I do believe your losing your touch.' Him said.

'Buttercup stop it, its obvious he is trying to provoke you into doing something stupid!' Blossom yelled at her sister. 'Fall back and we can come up with an attack plan.'

'I don't need any plans from you leader girl.' Buttercup said without taking her eyes off Him. 'Devil boy is mine.' Buttercup attacked again and this time Him made his true move. Buttercup was coming at Him with a lunging punch, but the move was sloppy and Him easily grabbed the arm in his pincher. Buttercup saw she was in danger and tried to pull away but the claw dug in deep and would not let go.

'**Your hate is my bread and mead little girl.'** Him said, digging his claw deeper into her flesh before swinging the Green Puff round his head like a lasso. Blossom and Bubbles watched helplessly as Him threw their sister down into the ground with enough force to cause the buildings around them to shake.

'Buttercup!' Bubbles shouted as she saw Him drive Buttercup deep into the road.

'Bubbles quickly, attack pattern omega seven red blue.' Blossom had seen what was coming even if it was to late to stop it, but she had the next move figured out, she just hoped Him did not have his next move planned out.

'Oh not attack pattern omega seven red blue, whatever shall I do?' Him said in a sarcastic voice as Blossom and Bubbles started their attack. Blossom flew in from the right while Bubbles flew in from the left; both flew as quickly as they could at his sides while Him just stood their waiting. The girls instead of hitting grabbed each of Him's arms and held onto them as tightly as he had held Buttercup's in his vice like claws.

'Now we have you.' Blossom said pulling Him's arm as hard as she could.

'Do you really my sweet child?' Him said and began to laugh as his body started to grow in size. The girls had seen this transformation once before, in the alternate future where they had disappeared and Him had taken over. Now longer looking like a sexually confused demon, he now looked like a true monster strait from the pit of hell.

'**You three were fools to face me.**' Him flexed his new muscles causing the girls to lose their grips on his arms. 'Maybe if you had tried when you were daisy fresh you would have done it, but after fighting every super villain in Townsville your no more challenge to me then aerobic exercise.' Him sent out both of his black pincers and grabbed Blossom and Bubbles with them. The two girls tried pushing out of the claws but were too weak; the razor sharp edges dug in just hard enough to stick them there but not enough to cut them in half. Him squeezed the very air out of their lungs and watched as they slowly suffocated in his grip.

'Now it is time for you to **die **my sweets!' Him said as Buttercup managed to crawl out of the hole she had been left in. 'Awake all ready Buttercup? Don't worry this time I will make sure you stay down, **permanently.**' Him lifted up his foot and brought it crashing down on Buttercup's back, his whole weight put on her.

'Buttercup…' Bubbles said in a very weak voice, she was starting to go blue as Him crushed her chest that screamed out for oxygen.

'Get off me!' Buttercup was in pain but unlike her sisters was still able to breathe. 'If you don't take this foot of me I will beat the life out of you!' Him just laughed at the meaningless threat.

'Buttercup, shout for help…' Blossom was using the last of her precious air to talk, only just loud enough for Buttercup's super hearing to actually hear. 'Quickly we need the boys help.'

'I don't need anybody's help especially those three jerks.' Buttercup tried to force Him's foot off her back and failed to even gain an inch. 'I just have to get Him off my back!'

'Buttercup please...' Blossom said with the last of the air she had in her lungs. Bubbles had now fainted and Blossom was very close to blacking out her self, only Buttercup could possibly call for help before Him killed them all.

'Ahhh!' Buttercup shouted out in a mix of pain and frustration. 'Fine… HELP!' Buttercup shouted out as loud as she could, the sound of which caused every piece of glass in a two mile radius to shatter and nearly deafen Him. Now it only remained to be seen if the boys heard it in time to help.

* * *

'That was easy.' Boomer said. They had just knocked out the Amoeba boys with little more then a light slap, Butch had refused to do even that saying it was 'a waste of his talents.'

'What did you expect Boomer?' Brick asked as he picked up the unconscious Amoeba boys and threw them into the remains of the great prison. As soon as he had done that they all heard Buttercup's scream for help.

'That was Buttercup shouting for help.' Boomer said in alarm as he looked to where he sensed Him to be.

'Buttercup screaming for help, things must be serious. Come on guys!' Brick and Boomer flew off with out any hesitation at all, leaving Butch at the prison for a moment. As much as Butch did not like Buttercup he respected her, she had some hardness in her unlike the other girls. Butch had thought her to stubborn to ever ask for help, even if it meant her own death. This thought confused him but at the same time was starting to open his eyes to something inside himself. But this was not a time for thinking, he was finally going to see some decent action, Butch flew after Boomer and Brick in a blast of green light.

* * *

'After I finish squeezing the life out of you I will do the same to those **Rowdy Ruff Boys.**' Him said as he felt Blossom and Bubbles heart beats drop to nearly nothing. 'Scream all you want Buttercup, no one is coming to save you… **damn you** perhaps but not save.' Him then saw bright colors flash before his eyes and heard bells ringing deep inside his head. The giant demon stumbled dropping Blossom and Bubbles while freeing Buttercup.

'Don't be so sure of that.' Brick said, he and his brothers had attacked from Him's blind side with a triple kick which had freed the girls. 'Butch, Boomer go and check on the girls while I keep slappy busy.' Brick charged at the demon hoping to keep him off guard while Butch and Boomer went down to ground level to check on the three Power Puff's.

'Bubbles can you hear me?' Boomer said as he turned an unconscious Bubbles over he could see she had stopped breathing. 'Oh no, Butch she's stopped breathing!'

'Well you know that CPR rubbish, use it.' Butch said, he was not really interested in the girls' health because there was a true fight waiting for him and if he did not hurry Brick would have all the fun.

'I did a half hour first aid course because of the free cookies and juice!' Boomer shouted at Butch. 'I hardly paid attention, and you were there to!'

'Yeah but I paid zero attention, I was to busy stuffing by pockets with cookies.' Butch said. 'Like it or not your going to have to do this one Boomer, and quickly… I don't think she wants her skin color to match her dress.' Butch then left Boomer's side and went to check on Blossom and Buttercup.

'Ok Boomer its time to step up… you have to remember what to do.' Boomer took in a deep breath and tried desperately to do everything he had been told at the first aid course. He hesitated for a moment and then began to perform the kiss of life on Bubbles, all the while praying to anyone who cared that it would work. After a few repetitions he was starting to lose hope, but on the fourth try Boomer was surprised as Bubbles started to cough.

'Why does my throat hurt?' Bubbles asked as she started to open her eyes again. 'And why are my lips tingling?' Boomer went a deep red as the blood rushed to his head.

'Err… um… well you see… ah I will tell you later, I am just glad you're ok.' Boomer said.

'Well of course I am ok; I have my lucky charm with me.' Bubbles pulled out of her dress a small teddy bear tied to a thin piece of string, Boomer smiled as he saw the old toy and surprised himself by laughing.

'Well looks like boss lady is all right, in a few minuets she will be giving me more stupid orders.' Butch said after checking Blossoms pulse. 'And how about you Fluffy? Need me to take you home so the Prof can kiss your booboos better?' Butch asked Buttercup.

'When this fight is over I am going to kick your butt Butch, so help me I am going to do it.' Buttercup said.

'Well looks like Fluffy is still feeling feisty.' Butch said winding Buttercup even more, he would have gone on like this but he saw a flash of red light land next to him.

'This guy is tougher then I thought, I've hit him with everything I have and he still won't go down.' Brick said, he now looked like the girls had done when they had gone after Him in the first place.

'That guy?' Butch asked looking at Him.

'I don't understand how but he's much faster then I am, every time I try to hit Him he's all ready out of the way.' Brick had wasted all his energy fighting Him and knew he was losing, you could have all the strength in the world but it did no good if you could not hit your target. 'I think he moved all his power into speed, he's weak as an old man but his defense is impervious.'

'Stand back and let a pro show you how it's done!' Butch moved Brick to one side and attacked Him head on, flying head first for his gut.

'Butch no!' Brick shouted but was to worn out to go after his brother. 'Boomer help him!' Boomer nodded, taking one last concerned look at Bubble before he went after Butch.

'Do you think you can stop me little boy, then come on and try.' Him said. Butch was like a torpedo and if he had hit would have surly killed Him but the second he was about to hit Him moved gracefully to one side. Such a large monster should not have been able to move so quickly and gracefully but this was no ordinary monster.

'What the matter Butch?' Him said. 'I thought you were the toughest, even Bubbles did better then this, perhaps you should take fighting lessons from her?' Him knew Butch was too like Buttercup for comfort; it was child's play to manipulate his ego. Butch did not even think about what he was doing when he fired his green energy blast from his hand. The large wave of energy flew strait for Him's head but the demon just cocked it to one side letting the beam pass him harmlessly. The blast in fact was now heading for Boomer who had to barrel roll quickly to the side to avoid been hit by it.

'**Come on you little brat, fight me like a man!**'Him said to Butch, he needed the green Ruff to hurry or else Boomer might save him. '**Hand to hand, or are you afraid of me?**' Butch roared like an angered lion as he made another charge at Him, just like Buttercup he had fallen into the trap and would have been killed if Boomer had not stopped him in time. The Blue Ruff flew at his own brother grabbing him by his arms and pulling him away from Him.

'Don't do it Butch, he wants you to attack him.' Boomer said as he struggled to hold Butch back.

'Let go of me, I am going rearrange his face!' Butch squirmed around trying to get free but Boomer kept an ironclad grip around his mid section now.

'I am not letting you go until you cool down Butch, going headlong like that will just get you killed.' Boomer said as he pulled Butch back down to ground level where Brick waited with the Power Puff Girls.

'He's right Butch.' Buttercup said. 'I did the same thing and look what good it did me.' Butch sopped struggling when Buttercup spoke, he did respect her but more then that he did not want to make her mistakes… he was better then her after all.

'Butch I order you to stay here while we come up with a plan.' Blossom said in a slightly croaky voice.

'See I told you, stupid orders as soon as she woke up.' Butch said, he sounded calmer now so Boomer risked letting go of him but kept primed and ready to grab him if he tried to rush off again.

'Ok now that we are all awake maybe we can get some where…' Brick said.

'I say we attack Him all at once, he can't out match us all.' Butch said, his tactical knowledge consisted of hitting with everything you had and nothing beyond that.

'No Butch…' Brick did not get a chance to give his reasons, out of the corner of his eye he could see Him had stopped waiting for them to attack and was making his move. The demons mouth had opened wide and out of it a stream of fire blasted out, just like Bricks own ability, and it was going for Boomer.

'Huh?' Boomer felt heat coming at him and thought he could hear someone shouting a warning to him then he went flying. Boomer's senses seemed to all shut off apart from sight which seemed to become perfect, he could see every tiny detail as he went hurtling across the street. He saw his brothers moving for him as quickly as they could, he could see Blossom as she tried to get up, he saw Buttercup already up and shouting something he could not hear. The very last thing he saw in this moment of sensory clarity was Bubbles; she was standing where he had been with her hands outstretched looking right at Boomer. Then there was only fire.

The others had seen it all, Boomer had been daydreaming and now Him was about to barbeque him. Brick and Butch both tried to get to him in time but both could see the fire was moving faster then they were able to move from a standing start. Blossom saw Bubbles run to Boomer's side and push him with both hands, sending him out of the path of the flaming vortex. Buttercup shouted Bubbles name as if that could somehow help her sister. Then the flames hit, Boomer missed them by a few feet but Bubbles was struck dead on by the fires of hell.

'Damn it we're too late!' Brick said as he slid to a stop just as the flames died away. Bubbles was lying on the smoldering ground, smoke rising from her burned body and tiny fires still blazing on and around her.

'Bubbles!' Buttercup was the first arrive beside Bubbles. 'You have to be all right Bubbles, you just have to be.' Tears were welling up in her eyes as she saw how badly hurt her sister was.

'Not quite who I was aiming for but I will take it.' Him said as he looked down on his victim. '**Now who is next to burn?**'

'Ok we are taking Him down, Butch go left and Boomer you go right while I try to get behind him. Got that?' Brick asked, he got a yes from Butch but heard nothing from Boomer. 'Hey Boomer did you understand the plan? Boomer?' Brick could see Boomer was standing a few meters from where Blossom and Buttercup were kneeling next to Bubbles. His eyes were locked on Bubbles but had that empty look he had whenever he was thinking on something difficult.

'Oh great Boomers off with the fairies, we are on our own Brick.' Butch said.

'Crap, this was hard enough with three of us but two… I need a new strategy.'

* * *

Boomer was not in the zone as he normally saw it, he could still see the real world and could vaguely hear what was going on around him, but his thoughts were too many to be bothered with it. His eyes seemed to black out everything but Bubbles, his counterpart and the one who had just saved him and paid the price for it.

His thoughts ran though his mind getting louder and louder, he thought of the past when he had been a whole and tried to kill the Power Puff Girls, he thought of his brief time in an orphanage, he thought of his life on the streets, he thought how Butch would tease him, he thought how Brick kept telling him to suck it up and act like a Rowdy Ruff Boy, he thought of the students at school and how they bullied him, he thought of Him and what he had done and above all he thought of Bubbles. All the emotions inside of him were screaming, the thoughts and feelings he bottled up trying to breakout, it was like a caged beast pushing against the door of its cage trying to escape. The final thought that went through his mind was an image, he could see round Bubbles neck his teddy bear and now it was on fire, the small bear was turning black as it became ash and this was it.

_Snap_

Boomer felt and heard the snap and that was it.

* * *

'Blossom have you got any ideas on what we could…' Brick looked to see Blossom and his attention was grabbed instead by Boomer. 'What on earth?' Seeing the look of astonishment on Bricks face everyone looked a Boomer and everyone fell silent.

Boomer was no longer looking blankly at Bubbles but now looked at Him with anger radiating off him like heat. His eyes no longer blue had gone a shade of red brighter then Bricks, fire danced behind those eyes as from his throat came a growl that made even Him shiver. Boomer started to glow with a mix of blue and red light as he focused all of his hate, all of his anger at Him.

'Boomer-vicious…' Buttercup said under her breath, Boomer had snapped like Bubbles had done and now was hardcore.

'Kill…you…' Boomer's voice was no longer soft but now sounded like the voice of some long ago hero, a demon slayer.

'Did I upset you?' Him asked, a trace of fear running through his voice. 'Well go off and cry about it.' Boomer answered this taunt with an earsplitting howl before he seemed to disappear. No one saw Boomer jump from where he was and reach Him, he moved so fast that even the super vision of the other Ruff's and Puff's could not see the move, all they did see was Him fly off his feet and crash into a building. Boomer just seemed to appear floating where Him had been, his hand outstretched.

'Where did that come from?' Butch asked as he looked up at Boomer.

'I have no idea…' Brick said, slightly in awe of what his brother was doing.

'**You were lucky you little brat.**' Him said as he climbed out of the rubble of the building Boomer had punched him into. 'Now it's my turn.' Him threw his open claw at Boomer intending to cut him in two, but Boomer stopped Him with both of his own hands. The claws were wedged open by Boomer and no matter how much strength Him used he could not close them, they were actually been opened wider and wider.

'This is not possible.' Him said as he put all of his energy into the strength in his pincer but still Boomer pushed them back. Now Him felt pain bolt through his arm as Boomer pushed the claws back past where they were meant to go, the creak of tendons and cracking on bone filled the air as Him screamed in a voice of both a demon and his effeminate self. Boomer then flew forward turning into a human spear, he went in the gap of Him's claws and right through his arm. Out of Him's shoulder came a beam of red and blue light as Boomer finished his attack.

'My arm!' Him screamed in agony as black blood flowed freely from the holes on both ends of his now useless right arm. 'What are you!?' Him asked Boomer who looked down with the same expression of fury.

'I am rage, I am vengeance, I am hardcore and I am your death!' Boomers voice bellowed out and caused his brothers spines to shiver.

Boomer attacked Him once again, this time rapidly firing his eyes lasers down on Him. The red beams struck Him with the force of a nuclear explosion, the red fiend was sent back by the barrage unable to stand against the power Boomer had gained.

'Mercy, please show my mercy!' Him said in a weak voice as Boomer stopped firing his eye beams. For a moment Him thought Boomer was going to stop and let him go, but when he looked from behind his arms he could see Boomer coming right at him like Butch had done earlier. Him had easily avoided Butch's head butt earlier but Boomer was much faster and Him was far too weak to move out the way. Just as Boomer had done through Him's arm he now drove through Him's midsection. This time when Boomer came out Him made no sound, he just shrank instantly back to his original form. Boomer floated down to where Him lay, he was badly beaten but would live if given time. Boomer picked Him up by his throat and held him close to his face. The blue Ruff looked at Him and thought that it would be best to kill him, to take his vengeance, but a small voice told him not to do it. The voice was a mixture of his own and Bubbles, _do not kill him, if you do then you become just like him Boomer._ If the voice had been just his own Boomer may have ignored it, but with Bubbles voice as well he took notice of it.

'You can thank Bubbles for your wretched life.' Boomer said to Him as he tossed him to one side, then closed his eyes and fell backwards. He was caught by two pairs of hands; Butch and Brick had stopped his fall and gently lay him down.

'What happened to him Brick?' Butch asked as he looked at the sorry mess that was Him.

'I don't know, but it might be the single coolest thing I have seen in my life.' Brick said as Boomer started to come around.

'Eck, what happened?' He sounded like his old self and when he opened his eyes they were back to their original deep blue. 'Is Bubbles all right?'

'She's been better bro but I think she's going to make it.' Butch said.

'Hey who beat Him up?' Boomer asked when he saw Him lying in a pool of his own black blood.

'Don't you remember, you went berserk and beat the snot out of Him… it was awesome!' Brick said punching the air, but Boomer just shook his head confused, the last thing in his memory was seeing Bubbles after Him's fire breath hit her.

Boomer stood up feeling light headed and a little sick, he could not believe he had beaten Him on his own no matter what. But both of his brothers swore that he had done it, and why would they lie to him?

'Guys we can celebrate later, right now we have to get home.' Blossom and Buttercup had picked up Bubbles as carefully as they could. 'Bubbles needs medical attention, school will have to be missed today.'

'Oh what a pity and here I was looking forward to been in the company of those tolerant open minded students and teachers.' Butch said sarcastically as he snapped his fingers by his side.

'Shut up jerk and start flying.' Buttercup said, Butch reacted with a snappy salute.

'Yes sir commander Fluffy.' Butch said and then flew as fast as he could to make sure he got the last word in.

'One of these days, bang, zip strait to the moon Butch!' Buttercup yelled after him.

* * *

Blossom sat on one of the medic-beds while professor Utonium lightly dabbed a small cut with a ball of cotton coated in iodine solution. Blossom winced as the cut sang out with pain, but she bore through it knowing making a noise would only encourage Brick or more likely Butch.

'You girls are just going to have to go back into training, honestly making such stupid mistakes.' The Professor had given them all a grilling, Buttercup for been so headstrong, Butch for teasing Buttercup and also for been headstrong, Blossom for been careless and leaving the boys behind, Brick for not thinking through his plans and Boomer for day dreaming during a fight.

'Yes Professor.' Blossom said through clenched teeth as the professor Utonium finished cleaning her cuts.

'Excuse me sir but will Bubbles be ok?' Boomer asked sheepishly.

'Boomer you can call me Professor if you like, and yes Bubbles will be as right as rain in a few more hours.' Professor Utonium had worked on Bubbles for a long time but had managed to keep her stable; her wounds were now healing thanks to her super powers.

'That's great!' Boomer said cheerfully, his face beaming with a smile that seemed to fill his whole face.

'Nah bro, you were great.' Butch said. 'You totally kicked butt out there; I couldn't have done better myself.' Boomer now beamed with pride as well as happiness, he felt a hundred feet tall and better then he had his whole life.

'Now I have to go and write out excuse notes for all six of you to take into school tomorrow.' Professor Utonium said as he packed away his medical equipment.

'Aw, we don't have to go back there again do we?' Butch asked.

'Well of course you do, education is very important after all.' The Professor said. 'I know no one likes school but it's the happiest time of your lives, believe me when I say that… why I remember when I was in school…' At this all of the children instantly zoned out the Professor.

* * *

'I hate this place.' Brick said as the six Ruff's and Puff's arrived at the school for yet another day.

'Tell me about it, but what can we do?' Butch said walking up the stairs that lead to the main entrance of the school.

'Come on boys, we are going to be late if you don't get a move on.' Blossom shouted through the doors of the school. Buttercup ran past her, if she was late one more time this term then she would be in detention for a week.

'Yeah, yeah we're coming don't get your skirt in a twist.' Brick said as he slumped his shoulders and half heartedly walked into the school. Butch took a brief look at freedom and seriously considered making a run for it, but running was for sissies so he followed Brick into the school. This left only Boomer and Bubbles outside.

'Boomer wait a second.' Bubbles said as Boomer was about to walk up the stone stairs into school.

'What is it Bubbles?' Boomer asked.

'I wanted to say thank you.' Bubbles said sitting on the steps. Boomer was taken back by what she said and for an instant stood stock still, but then sat down beside Bubbles.

'Thank you? What for?' Boomer asked her.

'For what you did yesterday, Blossom and Buttercup told me all about it and I have not had the chance to thank you for it.' Bubbles said.

'You don't have to thank me, I should thank you after all you saved me from Him's fire breath.' Boomer said feeling the blood rush to his head as embarrassment filled him.

'Yeah but you saved my life remember?' Bubbles said. 'I had stopped breathing and you gave me the kiss of life, and then when I was hurt you went hardcore which means you care for me!' Bubbles said causing Boomer to go into the stutter.

'I…I…I...I… it was…err… I don't… I mean I do… but I…I…I…I um… you see…' Boomer could not get his thoughts in order and may have rambled on much longer if Bubbles had not interrupted him.

'We can talk about it later Boomie, right now just remember that you're my knight in a blue shirt, and if they start bullying you in there…' She cocked a thumb back to the school. '…Just remember you're hardcore.' Bubbles got up and turned to face Boomer who looked flabbergasted. Bubbles managed to hold back the giggles that built up in her throat at seeing him looking so stunned, then leaned forward and kissed Boomer on the cheek. As soon as she did Boomers face went so red he looked ready to explode.

'Come on Boomie, or else we'll be late.' Bubbles ran up the stairs leaving Boomer on the steps, baffled by what had just happened. Part of him was disgusted, the Rowdy Ruff Boy part which saw all girls as icky and full of cooties. But another part of him was overjoyed, this part was quite but over time would grow in him; it was what he was becoming.

The school bell woke him from his stupor and he felt ready to face school now, though he was not sure if it was pride from his brothers or something Bubbles had said which gave him this new confidence. He would think on it later, if he spent any more time out side he would be late and so Boomer put it in high gear as he flew through the school to get to class.

He reached the door of Miss Keane's classroom just a few seconds before the tardy bell would ring giving him a moment to collect himself before the day started. With a deep breath, as if he was about dive into a pool of water, Boomer opened the door and walked into the classroom.

'There he is, the man of the hour!' This was from someone in the class and for a moment Boomer thought there must be someone behind him. The class for once was not looking at him like he was Hitler and like he was one of the Power Puff girls.

'Hey Boomer there's a seat next to me, come on over!' Mitch shouted across the room.

'I have a better seat, its right next to the window!' Mike Believe shouted to Boomer.

'Boomer my man, sorry for teasing you the other day but it was all just a laugh you know?' This was Tom, one of the three bullies from Boomers miserable first day. Now Boomer was left dumbfounded, had somebody poured happy gas into the classroom?

'Boomer if you please take a seat.' Miss Keane said. 'Oh and thank you for yesterday.' Boomer walked as if in a dream, sitting down next to Brick and Mike Believe.

'Brick what's going on here?' Boomer asked.

'Dude they saw us yesterday, when we beat MoJo up.' Brick said.

'Saw, MoJo's roboJoJo was about to flatten us all before you stopped him Boomer.' Mike said.

'It looks like they finally got the idea that we are not evil anymore.' Brick said. 'That psychotic monkey did something good for us for a change, everyone thinks were the best thing since sliced bread.'

Boomer leaned back in his seat and started laughing, he did not know what was so funny to him and felt a bit of an idiot doing it, but he laughed anyway. It was the first time he had laughed in school, and one of the few times he had smiled while he was there. Maybe things were going to turn out all right for them after all.

* * *

The dart went right between Blossoms eyes, a perfect hit, Blaze then threw one for Bubbles but missed the target by a few inches.

'Hah that sucked!' Blaster said, he had managed to get all three dead on which meant he was in the lead.

'Laugh it up blue boy, soon as I get these darts back I am aiming at you.' Blaze said getting out of his chair and walking over to the wall where pictures of the three Power Puff Girls had been stuck up. He moved his hand across and collected the three darts and made a fake throw at Blaster.

'Are you two done playing games?' Brimstone asked as he walked into the old sky box.

'Sure Boss, whatever you want.' Blaze said.

'Good, now we have to talk boys… we need to talk about our little problem.' Brimstone pulled an old chair out of the corner of the room and sat down. 'Now what did we learn from our little experiment?'

'That those guys in prison were losers.' Blaster said.

'We kick butt, that the best they have just 'aint good enough to stop a Ruff.' Blaze said.

'Both very true, but we knew both of those facts before we got here.' Brimstone said. 'What we did learn was very important; it was about those wannabe Rowdy Ruff Boys and also about our main goal, The Power Puff Girls. You see watching them run all round Townsville we have learned that whatever those other Ruffs are they have power… for a while I was hopeful it was minimal but that fight with Him… Boomer showed the same strength that we have, and that is dangerous. I was right to fall back, if we had fought them I don't think we would have survived.'

'Ok so Boomer went nuts and beat Him, I could have done that with my eyes closed and in half the time.' Blaze said. 'I still think we are better then the six of them combined.'

'Blaze if I want your opinion I will ask for it.' Brick's glare on Blaze reminded him that he was talking to a madman. 'We can not risk everything on a maybe, we have to use our heads and get through this.'

'Well that rules Blaster out then.' Blaze said.

'Hey I am smarter then I look.' Blaster shouted back at Blaze.

'Well you look like a village idiot.' Blaze said laughing at Blaster.

'You take that back!' Blaster did not give him a chance as he got ready to plow his fist into Blaze's face. He was stopped by Brimstone's hand as he was yanked back to his seat.

'If either one of you two says anything else without been asked I will break both your arms.' Brimstone said looking back and froth between his brothers. 'Now that is clear we can get back to our business. The Power Puff Girls are easy pickings, they don't seem to trust our duplicates and are too confident of their own abilities, Him would have crushed them if given a few more seconds, so we can discount much more challenge from them. But if they do combine with the other Rowdy Ruff Boys we might struggle, even lose against them. So we must split them up, try and get the girls to come after us recklessly like they did Him. If we can get them to leave the boys behind and come after us alone then we could kill them, which would leave the copies of us as easy targets.'

'So how do we do that Brimstone?' Blaster asked, Brimstone thought of punishing him for speaking when not told to but the question was valid so he gave him mercy… this time.

'Brother if you can not attack the body then where is it you must attack your enemy?' Brimstone asked and just got blank looks from Blaze and Blaster.

'Err… we could attack their house!' Blaze said after a while.

'What about their school?' Blaze said, they both fought Brimstone meant that they must attack a physical thing.

'No you idiots we don't attack buildings we attack something much more important then that.' Brimstone said. 'Their hearts. We attack their hearts Brothers.'


	6. Revelations

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 6

Revelations

The city of Townsville, where now Brimstone tells his brothers his plan to destroy the Power Puff Girls.

'We will eat away at their souls until they have no choice but to attack us.' Brimstone said. 'Everyday we shall kill someone they love, someone they hold close and cherish more then their own lives. Everyday they will wake to find another of their cherished ones are dead, and we are responsible each and every time. I don't think we will have to wait long before they come chasing after us swearing revenge, and then they can join the ones we killed.'

'I don't know boss, Blossom might be able to keep her cool if she has even half your guts. She must know by now going in headfirst is a good way to get killed.' Blaze said, been very careful not to offend his brother and leader.

'Yes Blossom may do so, and Bubbles might just cry under the bed… but Buttercup has such a thick skull and stubbornness that I think she may even come after us alone. And that will be at least one less Power Puff Girl to deal with Blaze.' Brimstone said.

'So who do we kill first then Brimstone?' Blaster asked.

'Well I think we start at the top and make our way down from there.' Brimstone sat down in the chair next to the desk and started to spin slowly round on it. 'Professor John Utonium is the closest to family those girls have, their own father really. When they find his corpse I think they will be at least a little rattled.' A sly smile crossed Brimstones face as he stopped spinning the chair around.

'But Professor Utonium is protected by those girls, the second he is in trouble they will come running.' Blaster said.

'Oh I know that, do you think I am stupid Blaster?' Blaster hung his head down and very quietly said no. 'Glad to hear that Blaster. Now as for interfering, we just need someone to play distraction while I deal with the Professor. Blaze that will be your job.' Brimstone pointed at Blaze who looked around confused.

'Me?' He asked. 'What am I going to do?'

'Blaze you will start attacking the town, those idiots will come running after you and you shall keep them all there until I am done with Professor Utonium.' Brimstone said.

'But if I go up against all six of them I will get creamed!' Blaze shouted, visions of the beating he would get running through his mind.

'Blaze are you a Rowdy Ruff Boy or a Power Puff Girl?!' Brimstone yelled back, jumping out his seat and giving no time for Blaze to give an answer. Brimstone had planned out what he was going to say perfectly, knowing it would get Blaze to do just what he wanted without thinking it suicide. 'I thought you were the same guy I trained with for two years, I thought you were the brother who spent every waking moment preparing to fight the Power Puff Girls, now you tell me you cant handle them for a few lousy minutes? Blaze you boasted that you alone were as strong as the entire team of Power Puff Girls, was that a lie, did you lie to me Blaze?'

'No way Brimstone I would never lie to you.' Blaze said, the old fire burning in his eyes. 'I could beat those fake Ruff's and stupid Puff's no sweat, you might not need to kill the old Prof cause I will kill them all myself. I could beat them all with one hand behind my back.'

'Then think what you will do with both arms.' Brimstone said as he placed both hands on Blaze's shoulders. Personally he did not think Blaze would do anything else but get the crap kicked out of him, but that suited him. Brimstone remembered how Blaze had suggested he had fallen for a trick, that he a god had made a mistake, and now the time for punishment had arrived.

* * *

The school day was over and the Power Puff Girls and Rowdy Ruff Boys had returned home for the weekend. It had been a week of ups and downs, especially for the Ruff's, which had ended on a high. The boys had finally been accepted by the town after they helped to save it; they had made friends and where starting to truly enjoy themselves.

Brick was inside the Utonium home devising strategies on a flip chart in the boys' room. He had decided to work on these after the battle with Him; Blossom had shown that her team had planned attacks, while he had been forced to think on the spot. Now he had a chance to make up a few plans of his own, so he and his brothers could keep up with the girls. He was so lost in thought that he never heard Blossom knock and let herself in.

'Hi Brick.' She said closing the bedroom door behind her.

'Huh?' Brick stopped looking at the diagrams he had drawn and to the door where he saw Blossom standing. 'Oh hey there Blossom, what's up?'

'I was looking for Bubbles and Buttercup, have you seen them anywhere?' Blossom asked.

'Yeah Buttercup said something about showing Butch who was Fluffy around this place… and Bubbles was drawing a picture in the backyard.' Brick said turning his attention back to his latest attack idea.

'Oh, well I guess I better leave them alone then…' Blossom was about to leave when she noticed Brick was looking at something that looked suspiciously like her own diagrams. 'What are you doing by the way?'

'Thinking up new strategies, I have not done it in a while now… well apart for a few for fun… but now I need them. You saw how bad it was, we have no team work, no plans of attack and that could lead to disaster for us.'

'Maybe I can help?' Blossom suggested.

'I don't think so, I know my brothers strengths and weakness far better then you do.' Brick said.

'Ok then I will just go to my room and read comic books then.' Bricks attention snapped away from the illustrations as panic and guilt shot through his body. Right now, under his bed, there was a large collection of comic books with "property of Blossom Utonium" labels across every front page. Brick had borrowed these without asking and knew if Blossom went looking for them now he would be in trouble.

'You know on second thought two heads are better then one.' Brick said quickly. 'And you're much more experienced at this then I am.' Blossom shrugged unable to understand why Brick had changed his mind.

'Ok then lets see what you have so far.' Blossom said as Brick let out a sigh of relief; he would have to get those comics back in her room as soon as they were done here.

'Well right now I have a few basics… attacking groups, singles, strong monsters and fast monsters. I also have a few special moves we can perform.' He pointed to the flip chart where the first page showed his ultimate attack.

'This looks like a single attack move, "Dark Dragon Drive", what is that?' Blossom asked as she studied the drawings Brick had made.

'It's like your "Ferocious Fiery Feline" attack, but instead of using friction to build a fire we combine our energy trails and create an attack.' Brick said pointing to the numbered pictures.

'But if you combined the energy tails when you fly at the right frequency you would cause the energy to spike exponentially. You could cause an explosion with more power then a hundred nuclear war heads.' Blossom said as she counted up Brick's own calculations on the attacks power.

'Yes it could, and nothing could survive that. That's why it is only a last resort attack; if I don't have to I would rather not kill someone.' Brick said as he flipped the page over to show his next attack plan.

'Wow this is good, a double bluff flank strike. This would fool even me.' Blossom said as she read through Brick's rough notes next to the pictures.

'Thanks, I did work hard on that one.' Brick said feeling his ego swell.

'But you should have Boomer attack from the right, after all Butch is left handed.' Blossom said taking a pen and changing the diagram.

'How did I miss that?' Brick said as he saw the obvious mistake he had made. 'Your better at this then I thought.' Blossom gave him a little smile as she started to point out improvement he could make to the rest of his strategies.

* * *

Butch threw the basket ball and watched as it easily fell through the net, the fact he was down the road about half a mile from the basket made no difference to him. He flew quickly back to the house and picked the ball up ready to go back and try throwing from further back. He had no more then started to turn around when he heard a familiar voice.

'There you are Butch; my fists want to talk to your face.' Butch swung round on his heels to see Buttercup was walking down the drive towards him.

'Nice to see you to Buttercup.' Butch said as he put the basketball underneath his arm.

'I promised you a butt kicking and I always deliver on my promises.' Buttercup said. 'So if you have any last words now is the time.'

'Yeah I have some.' Butch said with a smile. 'Think fast.' He threw the basket ball at Buttercup as fast as he could, and watched as Buttercup caught it easily with one hand.

'You will have to do better then that.' Buttercup said.

'Oh I can do much better then that, the question is if you can keep up.' Butch said walking to be just in front of the hoop. 'What do you say Buttercup, think you can give me a half decent game?' Butch waited to see if this worked; either a fight was coming or a basket ball game.

'Keep up with you; I think the question is if you can keep up with me.' Buttercup started to dribble the basketball, all the thoughts of fighting Butch lost but the want to beat him growing.

'Let's see what you got then.' And so the game started, Buttercup jumping up past Butch and slamming the ball into the net.

'First point is mine.' She said making a line in the air with her finger.

'Yeah well it's the first to twenty who wins, and I have only just begun to play.' Butch said catching the ball and starting his attack on the net. The game went on for over an hour, with the score staying pretty even through out. Both Butch and Buttercup were worn out as the game was coming to a close, with both of them on nineteen points each and Buttercup's turn to shoot. Butch waited for her throw and jumped just in time to touch the ball and send it off its perfect course. Instead of going strait into the net it started to roll round the rim and lean to the wrong side, it was going to fall off and become his ball.

'To bad, looks like this game is all mine.' Butch boasted, but Buttercup was not done just yet. Buttercup took a deep breath in and blew out as hard as she could, sending an almost gale force blast of air at the net. The ball was hit and blown strait into the net, making the final score Butch nineteen and Buttercup twenty.

'You were saying.' Buttercup said with a smug expression on her face.

'Ah shoot.' Butch said as the ball bounced past his feet. 'Well you won this one, and you did not play to bad… for a girl anyway.'

'Well this girl just beat you.' Buttercup said, enjoying every second of her victory.

'Yeah well if we were playing soccer I would have kicked your butt.' Butch said.

'That sounds like a challenge Butch, and if you happen to think you can match me… well I will be waiting at the park.' Buttercup said just before she flew off to the park, her energy apparently restored by the triumph.

'If I did not know any better I would swear she was a boy.' Butch said with an odd mix of respect and annoyance. He kicked the basket ball away and then chased after Buttercup, there was no way he was ending the day losing to a girl.

* * *

Bubbles put the finishing touch on the drawing and stood back to admire it, she had been working on it in almost all her free time and she felt it the best drawing she had ever done. For a crayon drawing done by an eight year old it was very good, it was a picture of Boomer sitting in a field of flowers of every possible color. Boomer looked out across the field, the sun glinting in his eyes making them appear to be streaked with gold as well as sapphire. As Bubbles looked at the picture she noticed he looked like he was waiting for someone, who she did not know but he was definitely waiting.

With the drawing done Bubbles now had only to give it to Boomer, but she had no clue where he was. Unlike him she did not have the ability to sense where people were, that was his own unique power. She floated up to the house windows and tried to look into the bedrooms, the girls was empty and the boys only had Brick and Blossom in laughing about something. Bubbles tried looking all round the house but could find no trace of Boomer. She was going to try flying around the city to see if she got lucky when Professor Utonium came out of his laboratory.

'Professor so you know where Boomer is?' Bubbles asked, keeping the drawing hidden because she wanted Boomer to be the first to see it.

'Why yes I do, he told me he was going to the outskirts of town, somewhere just west of the main road.' Professor Utonium said as he went to the front door. 'Bubbles I have to go to the store, I forgot to buy enough food for dinner tonight, and if you need me I will be home in about half an hour. Ok sweetie?' Bubbles nodded and with that the Professor left.

* * *

In the outskirts of Townsville, just west of the main road, there is a beautiful woodland and that was where Boomer was. He had come here before, often in secret when he missed Townsville while they were forced to live in Citiesville. Boomer was lying on his back, his hands behind his head, looking up at the clouds as they went by. He loved to come here and relax. It was quiet and he seemed to be the only person who ever came to this part of the wood. (The reason for that was if you could not fly you had to cross Lumpkin territory, even after they had been forced to leave people were wary of the woods.)

'Who's there?' Boomer jumped to his feet as he sensed that he was no longer alone, he could not tell who was there but someone was very close to him now. 'Come out and show yourself.'

'Boomie it's only me.' Bubbles said as she walked out of the trees and into the clearing Boomer was standing in. A soon as Boomer saw her he put down his guard and smiled.

'You gave me a scare Bubbles; I thought the Brick or Butch had found me.' Boomer said sitting down crossed legged on the soft grass. 'If they found me out here I would never hear the end of it you know.'

'Why?' Bubbles asked him.

'The same reason Buttercup teases you I guess, and because Boys are not supposed to spend their time watching the clouds go by.' Boomer answered. 'Promise me you wont tell them about me been here Bubbles.'

'Of course I won't tell them Boomie.' Bubbles said sincerely.

'Thanks, but you did promise not to call me Boomie any more. My name is Boomer after all.' Boomer said feeling embarrassment begin to rise up from his stomach.

'I called you Boomie all day and you never complained.' Bubbles said smiling sweetly at Boomer. She was right, the whole day she had not once called him Boomer but always Boomie and he had not even noticed it. Boomer had been too stunned by the change of attitudes the school had made to notice anything.

'Well could you at least call me Boomer when other people are around?' Boomer asked, knowing he could not argue anymore then that.

'Ok Boomie.' Bubbles said as she sat down next to him. 'Oh I almost forgot, I finished that picture for you.' Bubbles handed the drawing to Boomer who took it very carefully, he did not want to scrunch it up anymore then it all ready had been.

'Wow.' This was all he could say when he looked at the picture; he had never seen anything as good as this before. The picture took away all powers of speech he had, all he could do was look at it and admire it.

'What do you think?' Bubbles asked with more then a little apprehension in her voice.

'It's… um… well I like it a lot because it looks… I don't know the word.' Boomer said, he tried to find the right word for the picture but could not think of anything.

'Pretty?' Bubbles suggested to him.

'Well it is but that's not a word boys use to describe things… its cool.' Boomer felt Bubbles had the right word and the word cool was completely wrong, but the Rowdy Ruff in him would not allow him to say so.

'Thanks Boomie.' Bubbles said before lying back herself to look up at the clouds. 'Hey that one looks like a car.' Bubbles pointed up at a cloud that went past that if you looked hard enough did look like a car.

'Yeah, but that one looks like a hand.' Boomer said lying next to Bubbles pointing out the cloud he saw. They lay like this, watching the clouds, for ten minutes but they might have done it until the light had gone and they could no longer see the clouds. What stopped them doing this was the sound of the Hotline phone ringing.

* * *

'Power Puff Girls Hotline, Blossom speaking.' Blossom had rushed to the phone as soon as it started to ring with Brick flying behind her.

'Oh hello Blossom, how are you?' The Mayor asked on the other end of the line.

'Um fine thanks Mayor.' Blossom said. Then there were two lines of green light as Buttercup and Butch arrived after their super hearing picked up the hotline ringing.

'Oh that's good to hear, and how are your sisters?' The Mayor sounded as crazy as he usually was, Blossom tried to remember why he was ever voted in, surely someone competent had to run against him someday.

'They're fine as well Mayor. Is that the only reason you called?' Blossom was starting to feel a little impatient; the mayor could try anyone's patience sometimes.

'Well I was going to ask how those Rocky Tuff Boys where.' The Mayor said, as he did Bubbles and Boomer arrived through the bedroom window.

'Its Rowdy Ruff Boys Mayor and they are fine.' Blossom said. 'Mayor if there is not an emergency you should not call us on this line.'

'An emergency you say, well what a coincidence.' The Mayor said happily enough. 'The evil Rowdy Ruff Boys are attacking the city. I really should call the Power Puff Girls and get them to help.'

'We are on it Mayor.' Blossom hung the phone up before she could hear any more of the Mayors banter. 'The evil Rowdy Ruff Boys are attacking the city, we have to go and stop them. Boomer can you tell where they are?' Blossom asked Boomer who shook his head.

'The other me is masking them too well, I can't even tell if they are on the same planet as us.' Boomer said. 'I am doing the same for all of us, the evil Rowdy's can not tell where any of us are as well as some other important people. Miss Keane, the Mayor, Professor Utonium and such.'

'I don't think we need any sixth sense mumbo-jumbo to find them.' Buttercup said looking out the window at the main city. There was a plume of black smoke rising from the town, and Buttercup would bet a cookie that was where the evil Rowdy's were.

* * *

'You can run faster then that.' Blaze said as he watched the pedestrians flee from him and his assault on the city. 'You have ten seconds left before I start shooting. One, seven, three, umm… quazzle.'

'Quazzle is not even a number moron.' Brick said as he and his brothers arrived at the seen of Blaze's attack.

'Well if it isn't the fakes.' Blaze said. 'Where are your Girlfriends?' Blaze asked causing Butch and Brick to go on a rant about how there was no way on earth that the Power Puff Girls were their Girlfriends. Boomer just blushed and stayed quiet.

'Well I guess killing you three will have to do for now.' Butch said as he started ho charge up an energy wave attack.

'Not so fast evil Butch.' This was from Blossom, she and the Power Puff Girls had circled around to surround Blaze.

'Butch?' Blaze said with fake ignorance. 'Don't know anyone called Butch, my name is Blaze.'

'So where are the evil versions of Brick and Boomer then?' Buttercup asked Blaze.

'You must mean Brimstone and Blaster; well they are around here somewhere.' Blaze said with a shrug. 'But we decided that only I had to fight you losers so you won't have to worry about them.'

Both Blossom and Brick could see right through this plan, Brimstone in his arrogance and not thought of this as well as a few other details. If the Professor had been at home they would have been back there faster then a bullet but he was out for a good twenty minutes still. This was the perfect chance to remove an evil Rowdy Ruff from the equation, cutting their power by a third.

'Everyone attack Blaze.' Brick and Blossom said this at the exact same time and instantly both teams attacked Blaze. The girls attacked from the rear while the boys attacked head on, Blaze was caught in the middle with no where to go. The first to reach him was Bubbles who tried to punch him in the head; Blaze put up one hand and blocked the punch with ease. The second attack was from Butch who tried to kick his doppelganger in the chest but was also blocked with Blaze's other hand.

'I knew I was the best.' Blaze said as he pushed Bubbles and Butch away from him and put a defense up for Blossoms attack. The pink Puff fired her eye beams which Butch ducked under then had to flip over to avoid Buttercup's flying kick. That was the last moment where it looked like Blaze might actually win the fight after all. Brick made contact with Blaze, his knee been driven deep into his soft gut and leaving Blaze doubled over in a coughing fit.

Down on the ground Butch had landed after Blaze had pushed him away, he could see Blossom's laser beams miss and thought they might need to pull out the stops, when he saw Brick was about to make a hit. As soon as Brick's knee went into Blaze, Butch felt a fire burn in his own belly, all the air rushed out of his lungs as he doubled over.

'Wha…what… who?' Butch tried to say as he went to his knees, something was very wrong here and he could not even warn the others about it.

* * *

'Did you search everywhere, I mean it everywhere!' Brimstone held Blaster by his neck pinned to the wall. 'You can't have looked everywhere; he is always here at this time, always!'

'Brimstone I'm choking.' Blaster managed to squeak causing Brimstone to tighten his grip.

'He must have been tipped off, did you betray me Blaster… or was it Blaze?' Brimstone started to hit Blaster against the wall; he did not know why it just seemed the thing to do. 'There are traitors everywhere Blaster, those who do not see I am a God. I keep killing them but more rise to take their place, have you become one of them? Et-tu Blaster? No you would not do such a thing; never, you're too weak minded.' Brimstone let go of is brother who fell down gasping for air, clutching his red throat in pain.

'Brimstone no one betrayed you, its just dumb luck.' Blaster managed to say after a while. He now had glimpsed at how mad his brother had become, but he too was mad in his own way and let it go.

'Luck, there is no such thing as luck just the god in the machine. Deus Ex Machina. Someone has moved against me I just know it.' Brimstone smashed a hand into the wall of the Power Puff Girls home. 'The Professor is not here, and Blaze will not keep the others busy much longer. We must leave here now.' Brimstone left the house without another word; Blaster followed him but kept his distance. Brimstone was dangerous most of the time, but right then he was a bomb waiting for some fool to trip him.

* * *

'Girls attack pattern Commodore Atari Sega thirty three!' Blossom ordered and with that the Power Puff's started a ping pong attack, hitting Blaze back from one girl to another. Blaze could not stop the attacks as the girls hit him away only to be in the waiting hands of another Power Puff. What no one noticed was down Bellow Butch was been hit with the exact same attacks, every hit on Blaze seemed to affect Butch at the same instant.

'Come on girls, you can't have all the fun.' Brick said. 'Boomer sonic boom him to the next millennium,'

'Right.' Boomer turned to the flying Blaze and tracked the course he was taking, when he was sure Boomer took in a deep breath. He held the air in his lungs for a moment and then shouted out with a sonic boom as big as he was. The ball of sonic air flew strait and true hitting Blaze in the back like a huge fist. Bellow them all Butch fell forward as he felt some huge force hit him in the back.

'Now let's see how you take the heat.' Brick said as he took in a deep breath of his own, but when he let it go it was not sound that came out. A spiral of fire shot out of his mouth and devoured Blaze whole, causing Butch to suddenly develop burns all over his body. The pain was too much and now he had the air to do so Butch screamed out in pain.

'Butch!' Boomer shouted as he flew down to see what was wrong with his brother.

'What?' Brick looked down to see Butch lying on the ground looking badly hurt. 'Oh no, Girls take care of Blaze there is something wrong with Butch.' Brick went floated down to the earth next to Boomer while the Power Puff Girls continued to attack Blaze.

'Butch what happened to you?' Boomer asked and was shocked when Butch leapt up and flipped over backwards while a large cut appeared on his face. 'What on earth?' Boomer jumped back while Butch rolled to one side as a rib made a wet snapping noise in his chest.

'Brick something is very wrong here, it's like Butch is been attacked but there's no one there.' Boomer said when Brick landed next to him.

'Been attacked?' Brick watched as Butch's arm swung round the wrong way and started to bend backwards as if someone held him in an arm lock. 'Whoa.' Brick went over and tried to find what was going on but he could see nothing, but he could not stop Butch's arm from bending. It was then Boomer saw that Buttercup held Blaze in the exact same hold. He stood still once again and his eyes seemed to glaze over as he started to zone. He watched as Blaze was knocked about by the Power Puff Girls and at the same time Butch seemed to be receiving the same punishments. That's when it clicked, he came crashing out of the zone and flew up to the battle again. This time he put his body in-between Blossom and Blaze.

'You have to stop hurting him.' Boomer said as he held his arms out protecting Blaze with his own body.

'I knew it, they are traitors!' Buttercup said but in her heart she did not believe it, if she did she would hesitate to attack Boomer as well as Blaze.

'No Buttercup I am not a traitor.' Boomer pointed down to where Butch was lying. 'Every time you hit Blaze then Butch suffers the same injuries he does. I don't know how but Butch is linked to Blaze, if you hurt him any more you might kill Butch.'

'That's not possible, is it?' Bubbles asked Blossom who did not know any better then she did.

'I don't know Bubbles, I really have no idea.' Blossom said in response, and it was in this time Blaze had fallen to the ground and managed in a brief moment of consciousness to escape. He had crawled to a manhole and with the last of his strength tare it open and fall into it to escape.

'I don't care if it's possible or not, it's killing Butch one way or the other.' Boomer said.

'Oh great Blaze got away.' Buttercup said when she realized Blaze was no where to be seen.

'We can't worry about him now, Butch needs help.' Boomer said.

'Your right Boomer, our main concern is Butch's health.' Blossom said. 'You and Brick go and find the Professor and get him back home as quickly as you can. We will take Butch back home and start the medical machines up.' Blossom knew that the she and her sisters could start to help Butch as soon as they got home while the boys did not know anything about the labs medical facility.

'Ok Blossom you got it.' Boomer flew back down to Brick, they talked very briefly then both of them flew off in the direction of the supermarket the Professor had gone to.

'Right Bubbles you and I are going to fly ahead to start the machines, Buttercup you carry Butch back and be careful he's taken a heck of a beating.' Buttercup opened her mouth to protest but both of her sisters had flown off before she even managed to draw in the breath to speak. All she could do was grumble under her breath as she floated down and picked Butch up, slinging him over her shoulder the same way he had done when she had been hurt all that time ago.

'Come on Mr. Personality lets get going.' Buttercup said before flying in the direction of home.

* * *

'I can walk on my own thank you.' Butch said with a slurred voice, at some point his jaw had been hurt badly and his lips were so swollen he could not talk properly.

'So you're awake then?' Buttercup said as she reached for the door handle. 'Enjoy your nap?'

'Just put me down!' Butch said. Buttercup put him down on the ground and stood back to see what he would do. Butch sat on the doorstep looking a total wreck, his right leg had been broken some how, his face was bruised and swollen, he had blood covering almost all of his face and had at least a doze fractures and small breaks.

'Well you said you can walk, let's see it.' Buttercup crossed her arms and just stood there as Butch tried with all the strength he had to stand up. His right leg was limp by his side so the left had to take all his weight, both arms quivered as the muscles could not take the strain of lifting him off the ground. Butch just bit on his lip and gave one tremendous push to force himself up and to a standing position.

'Ah ha, I stood up.' Butch said triumphantly as he wavered back and forth as his balance was gradually been lost. Butch held up for a good few seconds but he had no way of moving and eventually his weakness overcame him and he started to fall. Buttercup waited until his head was only an inch away from the ground before she grabbed him, slinging his arm over her shoulder.

'Well done you have equalled the accomplishments of a two year old.' Buttercup said as she adjusted Butch's weight so nothing went onto his broken right leg.

'When I get better I am going to kick your butt!' Butch said as Buttercup lead him into the house.

'Promises, promises.' It was when Buttercup said this that Butch realized where he had experienced this before, how he had been in Buttercup's place not that long ago. He felt like an idiot and decided the wisest thing was to shut up before he made himself look like more of an idiot then he had done already.

* * *

Professor Utonium had arrived only a minute after the Power Puff Girls had started to treat Butch's wounds. He was been dragged by Brick and Boomer so fast when they did stop he was sick. But after he had regained his composure the Professor had started work on Butch immediately, it was obvious Butch's condition was still critical even though he was awake.

'Girls you did a good job but now I have to take over.' Professor Utonium said as he led the girls out of the medical area of the laboratory and closed the door. This left the Puff's and remaining Ruff's with nothing to do but wait for news on Butch. Brick sat down and kept his eyes on the clock, watching the time and trying to think of nothing else. Boomer started to pace up and down the room as he worried about Butch, he stopped when Bubbles grabbed his hand and made him sit down and wait with her.

'Butch should he fine, he was acting like a jerk only a few minutes ago.' Buttercup said to no one in particular, she just hated the silence in the room.

'He was hurt worse then any of us has been before, I could feel him dieing.' Boomer said and found his voice lost at the thought of his brother dieing.

'What about now?' Bubbles asked. 'Can you still feel him dieing?'

'He is hovering, sometimes I feel he is strong and other times it's almost like his not there.' Boomer managed to say, squeezing his grip on Bubbles hand even tighter.

'Don't worry Boomer, Butch is a Rowdy and it takes a lot more then you would think to kill a Rowdy.' Brick said.

'I know the Professor won't give up on him, and we do have the best medical facilities in the whole of Townsville,' Blossom said but it did little to ease their minds. All they could do was wait until the Professor came out to tell them the results of his work.

It was over two hours before Professor Utonium came out of the lab to give the news to the children.

'I managed to stabilize Butch, though I did lose him a few times there.' Professor Utonium said. 'He should be back to his old self by lunch time tomorrow morning.' There was a huge wave of relief as he gave the news to the Ruff's and Puff's. Boomer let up his grip on Bubbles who had hardly noticed how hard he was holding her hand; Boomer had not realized he had been doing it at all. Brick punched the air and yelled out while Buttercup and Blossom simply relaxed.

'Now can someone explain to me how Butch ended up in this situation in the first place?' The professor asked.

'Well Professor it started when we got a call telling us that the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys were attacking the city.' Blossom started. She told the Professor the whole story of them fighting Blaze and the effects that had on Butch.

'So every time something happened to Butch the exact same happened to err… Blazer?' The Professor asked again, trying to be sure on all the facts.

'He's calling himself Blaze, while their Brick is called Brimstone and the evil Boomer is called Blaster now.' Blossom said patiently as the Professor she went over the details once again. 'And yes, if we hurt Blaze then Butch was hurt in the exact same way at the same time.'

'Oh dear this could be very bad if I am right.' The Professor said to himself and then to the boys. 'I need you to come down to the laboratory with me; I need to run some tests to be sure of what's happening.'

* * *

'Ok Brick you can come out now.' Professor Utonium said to Brick who stood behind a large screen. The red Rowdy came out from behind it and joined Boomer who had finished been tested on and now waited for the results. The Power Puff Girls were waiting outside the laboratory and the Professor told Boomer to fetch them, they would need to know the results as well. When the Power Puff's had joined them in the lab Professor Utonium picked up the long piece of paper which had the results from his tests.

'It's just what I feared.' The Professor said as he looked over the results.

'What is it Professor?' Blossom asked after a long moment of silence.

'The reason Butch was been killed at the same time Blaze was.' Professor Utonium sat at his desk and put the results down. 'You remember how the original Rowdy Ruff Boys split in two, thus making out boys here and the evil ones?'

'Yes Professor.' Bubbles said. 'But what has that got to do with what happened to Butch?'

'Well I thought the split was a complete one, making two new and separate entities.' The Professor continued. 'It seems that I was wrong about that, very wrong indeed. You see there is still a deep connection between to two sets of boys. The Rowdy Ruffs are still in essence one life force now inhabiting two bodies. Their life energies are connected to each other, and if one of them starts to be affected then the other half is also affected. In other words whatever happens to one Rowdy Ruff Boy happens to his copy, if one hurts his toe the other hurts their toe, if one becomes sick the other becomes sick and if one Ruff dies so does the other Ruff.' Professor Utonium finished speaking.

'That means if we try to kill the evil Rowdy Ruff's…' Blossom started.

'Then our good Rowdy Ruff's will also be killed.' Professor Utonium said.

'But if that's true we are useless in a fight, we would only be hurting ourselves.' Brick said as he saw the horrible truth before him.

'Yes, and if Brimstone learns of this he could become more dangerous then ever before.' Professor Utonium said. 'We must pray he never finds out the truth.'

* * *

'This failure must be redeemed!' Brimstone was still mad about the fact his plan had failed. 'We can not be seen as weak, we are gods after all! We must act quickly with a new plan. Maybe we could try infiltration, we look just like those goodie-goodie Ruff's and if we can get close to them we could...' Brimstone rant was cut short when a phone began to ring on the desk in the sky box.

'Since when did we get a phone?' Blaster asked as he looked at the black phone sitting on the table, he noticed there was a wire but it was not plugged to anything. But he was too stupid to know it had to be plugged in to ring.

'We don't have one.' Brimstone said as he picked the hand piece off the cradle and put the phone to his ear. 'Who is this?' Brimstone asked in an annoyed voice, but when the response came he went as white as a sheet. The Red Rowdy Ruff found his legs trembling and began to sweat with fear.

'Brimstone what's wrong?' Blaster asked alarmed at the sight of the great Brimstone acting so scared. Brimstone just held up a hand and in a weak voice told him to be quiet before putting his full attention on the phone.

'Hello sir…' Brimstone swallowed hard as he leaned on the desk feeling weak as fear stole away his power. 'We have been… yes of course you know what we have been doing sir forgive me please… yes I know my plan was stupid, very stupid.' Brimstone was now crying, his tears flowing freely from his eyes as the coldness around his heart grew to take his whole chest. 'We are failing and that can not do… I understand your worries but I can handle this… No there is no need for you to come!' Brimstone fell to the ground as he shook in terror, his panic growing as he talked to the voice on the end of the line. 'I just need a little more time to kill them… yes I want the power… I want to be a God sir… your commands are mine to follow, just tell me what to do…. Yes I will wait for Blaze, thank you sir.' Brimstone slammed the phone down and collapsed into the chair.

'Was it who I think?' Blaster asked as Brimstone slowly started to go back to his normal self, the fear draining out of him and his color coming back.

'Who else could it be?' Brimstone said in a voice which still quivered with dread.

'Maybe someone was pretending to be him.' Blaster suggested. 'They plant a phone while we are gone and then…'

'What phone?' Brimstone interrupted Blaster who saw the desk was now as empty as when they had left it earlier. The large black phone was no where to be seen; only a small square where there was no dust showed it had ever been there. 'And even if someone tried to be him no one could sound like that… no one could make me feel that fear but him.' Brimstone was now sounding like his old self once more.

'So what did he say?' Blaster asked.

'He was disappointed at my plans, he said they were nothing more then weak minded fools ideas… that he expected someone like MoJo JoJo to try them and not me.' If anyone else had suggested this to Brimstone they would have died, but Brimstone feared the person who told him this more then anything… it was possibly the only thing he feared.

'He called to tell us we were doing a bad job… he isn't going to come here himself is he.' Blaster said horrified, he too feared the one Brimstone had been talking to and would rather die then face his wrath.

'No he said it's not his time yet, but he did give me an order.' Brimstone said. 'He told me to wait for Blaze and listen to his story, and then I will know what to do.' And so Brimstone and Blaster waited in silence, neither saying a word as they watched the door. It was over three hours before the door opened and a near dead Blaze fell into the skybox.

'Looks like the Power Puff's did a number on you.' Blaster said as Butch slowly crawled into the room.

'Shut up Blaster.' Blaze said as he used his arms to drag himself over to the old couch they had against the wall. Neither of his brothers moved a muscle to help him, to do so would show weakness of their resolve and physical weakness of Blaze. When Blaze did reach the couch and managed to pull himself onto it Brimstone started to question him.

'How did you escape?' Was the first question Brimstone asked.

'I was doing well against them but they must have cheated somehow and started to hit me a little.' Blaze said. 'But when they were distracted I managed to escape into the sewers, I washed up in the dump and made it back here after that.' Blaze said.

'What distracted them?' Brimstone asked.

'That other me, Butch, he was badly hurt and so they went to check on him.' Blaze answered.

'Did you hurt him?' Was the third question Brimstone asked.

'Well I gave him a few good licks, but nothing near enough to make him as bad as he was.' Blaze said.

'What did happen to Butch then?' Brimstone asked, he knew this was what he had been told to wait for, the answer to their problem.

'Well it was weird, no one was hurting him but he was been beat up all the same boss.' Blaze said. 'It was strange alright; it looked like every time I was damaged then that sissy version of me was hurt as well.' At this Brimstone's eyes lit up as the thoughts went through his mind, he was almost sure he now knew what he had been told to learn. But he could not move on with it without been sure, he had to know. Brimstone undid his belt and whipped it off holding it out to Blaster.

'What do you want me to do with your belt?' Blaster asked as he took the black leather belt from Brimstone.

'Put it in your mouth and bite down on it as hard as you can, you are to make no noise until I tell you to do so.' Brimstone said. Blaster did as he was told looking only half as worried as he felt. As soon as he was biting down on the belt Brimstone grabbed his arm and twisted it until Blaster fell head first onto the desk.

'You will not make a sound.' Brimstone said as a fact and nothing more. With his brother firmly in place and biting down on the belt so as not to scream, Brimstone charged up his eye beams. Instead of a wide beam he fired to very thin beams that merged into on point over Blaster's arm. The concentrated laser beam burned into Blaster's skin causing pure agony to rush through the young boys' nervous system. Blaster bit down even harder as he tried to obey his leaders order, and it was then a loud scream could be heard. The scream was the same as Blaster but was coming from far away and Blaster was not making a sound. As soon as Brimstone heard this he let go of Blaster who feel to the floor clutching his hurt arm against his chest.

'So that's the weakness.' Brimstone said smiling like a madman.


	7. Endgame

**In these silences, something may rise**

Part 7

Endgame

The city of Townsville, at the home of the Power Puff Girls the Professor has revealed the hardest obstacle in the way of beating the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys. They are twined with their copies, and if either one dies so does the other half.

'Don't worry Professor; I am sure Brimstone won't be able to figure out what we know.' Blossom said. 'The evil Ruff's seem like idiots compared to our good versions, and they can't perform the same tests you did.'

'I don't know Blossom, Blaze and Blaster have both shown to be a lot dumber then my brothers but Brimstone is at least as smart as I am.' Brick said, and as he did Boomer suddenly shot out of his seat. The Blue Ruff grabbed onto his arm and held it while his face showed the pain that now burned in him.

'Boomer what's going on?' The Professor asked as he went to Boomer's side trying to see the arm Boomer clutched so tightly. When he did get close the Professor could see smoke rising from between Boomer's fingers. The smell of burning flesh filled the room and Boomer could not help but scream out in pain. The cry of agony was so loud it made the whole house shake and could be heard for miles around even by those without super hearing. It was only a few seconds and then after he had screamed the constant pain stopped and became a dull throb in his arm.

'Boomer let me see.' Professor Utonium said as he held out his arms to examine Boomer's injury. Boomer was reluctant at first but eventually, and painfully, let go of his arm and let the Professor see the wound. 'It looks like a laser beam burn in your arm Boomer, the same type as your eye beams I am afraid.'

'That means Brimstone knows what we know now.' Blossom said. 'He must know that we can't hurt him without hurting the good Rowdy Ruff Boys.'

'Yes and that makes him more dangerous then ever.' Brick said while the Professor started to see to Boomer's burn.

'Then we have to act quickly, find a way to stop them.' Buttercup said.

'And how do we do that then?' Brick asked. 'If we can not fight them, can not kill them or anything else then what do we do?'

'Lock them up.' Buttercup answered. 'A few force fields and a wall of Adamantium metal should keep them out of our way.'

'You mean like the great prison?' Brick asked. 'The one they destroyed in less time then it takes to deliver a pizza?'

'Containment does sound like the only answer to me but it will have to be something superior to the great prison.' Professor Uotnium said as he finished putting a bandage round Boomer's arm. 'I don't think I could build it alone, but with the help of the same minds who made the great prison I am sure we could so something.'

'But Professor it took over a year to design the great prison and almost a year to build it!' Blossom said. 'We don't have enough time to go through that again. The evil Rowdy Ruff Boys will attack any time, and won't be stopped. We need a fast solution to at least hold them long enough to design something long term.'

'I will arrange a meeting as soon as I can Blossom, I am sure that together the world best scientists can come up with an answer.' Professor Utonium said but in his heart he did not have much hope, and Brick could see this in his eyes.

* * *

'Where are you going Brick?' Blossom asked when she saw Brick going out the front door. 'I was hoping we could work on some new tactics for facing the evil ruffs.'

'I was just going to go and have a swim Blossom, wake me up a little and take my mind off the problem at hand.' Brick said without looking back at Blossom. 'When I get back we can work on strategies.'

'Ok Brick, have fun.' Blossom said and with out another word Brick closed the door and was gone.

Now Blossom had some time to kill while she waited for Brick, she thought of starting work with out him but decided Brick was right about getting their minds off the present situation. So instead of going to her room Blossom went to the living room where Bubbles and Boomer were watching TV together.

'Hi guys, what's on?' Blossom asked as she sat down next to her sister.

'Blarney!' Bubbles said ecstatically.

'You like Blarney to Boomer?' Blossom asked Boomer who shrugged.

'There are worse things on TV.' He said and nothing else, it was then Blossom noticed that Boomer was hardly watching the show and spent most of his time looking at Bubbles. Blossom now felt like a third wheel and was about to go off and start work on the strategies any way but then Butch limped into the room.

'Has anyone seen Brick, Boomer you must know where he is' Butch still had a few bandages around him and his leg would limp for a few more hours at least.

'Yeah I can sense him out at the beach.' Boomer said taking his attention away from Bubbles for a moment. 'Why do you want to know?'

'Well I wanted to talk to him about the whole evil versions of us thing but I can wait till he gets back.' Butch was about to go when an odd thought crossed his mind. 'Wait what in the heck is Brick doing at the beach, he hates it there.'

'He told me he was going for a swim.' Blossom said from the foot of the stairs.

'Brick going for a swim, that's a good one.' Butch said. 'That is one dude who lives up to his name when I comes to water; he sinks just like a Brick.'

'Oh no.' The colour drained out of Blossom's face as she realised what was going on, why Brick had really gone to the beach. She did not waste any time, she disappeared in a beam of pink heading for the beach as fast as she could go.

'What's with her?' Butch asked Bubbles.

'I don't know, but it must be really important.' Bubbles said not knowing how important it really was.

* * *

'It's a far, far better thing I do now then I have ever done before.' Brick said as he looked across the sea and out to the horizon beyond it. He stood looking for a moment longer; taking in the last of the sight he would have, enjoying the calm of it all and the peace. When he knew that waiting any longer would steal his resolve Brick started to walk towards the water where he planed to end both his life and the life of Brimstone.

'Brick stop!' Blossom shouted from above his head and when he heard it Brick cursed silently. He had hoped to do this with out been interrupted, with Blossom here things would become much more difficult.

'Go away Blossom.' Brick said as he kept walking into the water, now the waves sloshed around at his shins and he could feel the old fear of water coming back to him.

'Brick stop it right now.' Blossom said as she landed beside him, the hem of her dress just touching the water.

'You can't stop me Blossom.' Brick said and when he did he felt her arms going around his waist and pulling him back to land.

'I can try and stop you.' Blossom said.

'Blossom cant you see that I have to do this, to stop Brimstone.' Brick said as he pulled against Blossom, causing them to be stuck knee high in water. 'Brimstone is the leader, with out him Blaster and Blaze are nothing, and they can be contained. There is no other way this can end but with Brimstones death.'

'There is always another way Brick.' Blossom said tightening her grip around Brick's midsection.

'Just go home, look after your sisters and keep an eye on my brothers. By tonight Brimstone and I will be but memories, and then some peace can come out of it all.'

'Brick I am not going to let go of you, so if you drown I am going to do the same.' Blossom said. 'I will not let you kill your self like this, taking the easy route out of it all like a coward.' The word coward hit Brick like a slap to his face and for a moment Blossom felt his relax. She could have pulled then and gotten him all the way back to the beach but she knew that it was the wrong move; she would have to pull back his mind before his body could be moved.

'So what if this is the easy way out, at least this way its over.' Brick said.

'No it won't be over Brick, you will just leave Butch and Boomer alone, they will have to face Blaster and Blaze alone while you are free of it all.' Blossom said. 'What will you have them do? With out a leader what do you think they will do? I know, they will do the same as you and end their own lives. Is that what you want Brick, for them to jump after you?'

'No of course not but…' Brick could not think of anyway to finish that sentence off; there was just nothing there to say.

'But nothing Brick, if you die here then you die a meaningless death as a coward.' Blossom now could feel Brick had totally relaxed, she was winning him over. 'Brick if you want to then walk ahead and I won't stop you, we both can drown here and both be remembered as cowards or you can walk back to the beach, it's your choice.' Blossom waited to see which way Brick would go and for one horrible second she thought he would keep walking into the sea. But Brick turned around and spoke in a muted voice.

'Let's get out of this water.' Blossom let go of him and Brick slowly walked out of the sea and back on to dry land. 'You are one heck of a negotiator Blossom; you made me feel like a jackass standing out there.'

'Its just one of my many talents Brick.' Blossom said as she wrung out the bottom of her dress as best she could. 'Now I want you to promise me you won't ever do anything so stupid again.' Blossom said in a voice so like an old mother Brick could not help but smile.

'Sure, I promise never to do anything like that again… mom.' Brick said.

'What did you just call me?' Blossom said, she stopped wringing out her dress and gave Brick a look just like a scorned mother that Brick burst out laughing.

'Not… a thing… Blossom.' Brick managed to say between fits of laughter, rolling around in the sand holding on to his belly.

'You called me mom, I heard you say it!' Blossom said feeling her near growing. 'I should kick your butt for that.'

'Now you sound like Buttercup.' Brick said laughing even harder. 'Try doing an impression of the Professor next.'

'Why you little…' Blossom ran at Brick who managed to get up into the air and start flying for home, still laughing like a loon as he did. 'When I get my hands on you Brick!' Blossom shouted after him before she gave chase, the whole event in the ocean now completely forgotten.

* * *

Professor Utonium sat in front of a at least a dozen monitors waiting for the meeting to start. It had been difficult to arrange a meeting with such little notice, and a few of the scientist he had hoped to talk with would only watch a recording of it later on. But Professor Utonium had managed to get more then a few of the best scientists in the world, minds which had surpassed their time period by decades and in some cases centuries. The same group had come together two years ago to start work on the great prison, and in doing so had pushed science forward by at least thirty years. The Professor hoped with that starting point they could come up with a solution to the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys in only a matter of days.

'Computer display the time.' Professor Utonium said into the small microphone around his head, and with this command all the monitors showed the exact time down to the nano second. 'One minute 'till show time.' The Professor said as he made some final checks on all the links, he did not want to lose any of the scientists who had volunteered to help because of a bad connection. With the check finished the meeting could begin, the monitors all came to life showing the worlds top minds.

'Ladies and Gentlemen thank you for giving your time to me today, I hope everyone has read the brief I sent.' There was a series of yes's and affirmatives, not a single person had not read the notes Professor Utonium had sent when arranging the meeting. 'Then you all know the situation and why it must be resolved quickly, does anyone have anything to start us off with?'

'Professor Utonium I have looked over the notes and I must say I am very worried. These boys managed to destroy our prison in less then a single hour.' A woman in a white coat said as she held up the document Professor Utonium had sent. 'If they have this much power then I fail to see how we could possibly stop them.'

'Doctor Kia I understand your worries but I am sure we can come up with some solution.' Professor Utonium said.

'Could some sort of drug be formulated, to keep them passive for long enough for us to come up with a more long term solution?' This was from an old man sitting in a wheel chair smoking a large cigar.

'Sir Hammersmith I have been looking over these boys DNA and I can tell you no drug we make will work.' This was from the youngest member of the team. 'They have an immune system like nothing I have seen before, it would combat any antigen we put in their bodies with in six hours.'

'Dexter is right, Charles Xavier sent me his ideas before he was called away and he thinks any chemical based plan will fail within three days.' This was from the second youngest scientist, Robin of the Teen Titans. 'I was thinking a force field might be the answer…'

'No these boys destroyed the one in the great prison in seconds, and that was using its own nuclear power station. We can not possibly build a force field strong enough to hold them indefinitely; it would require way too much power.' Professor Utonium said holding onto the microphone and looking at the screen showing Robin.

'Well it can't be a metal based containment, Adamantium is the strongest material on earth and they managed to get through it.' This was Sir Hammersmith one again, still smoking his large Cuban cigar.

'Well they only managed to force the door to open due to its structural weakness. They would not be able to escape a solid box of Adamantium.' Dexter the boy genius suggested and received half a dozen complaints.

'And how would we get them in there?' Doctor Kai asked. 'And even if we did get them in how could we give them air and food?'

'Doctor Kai has a very good point.' Robin said. 'We could get them in there is suppose, Cyborg and I have been working on teleportation technology but after we did that we could not keep giving them air.'

'Why not just teleport air and food in?' Professor Utonium asked.

'The teleporter needs a tremendous amount of power to work, even for only a brief time. To keep one going would take the equivalent of hundred nuclear stations running at full capacity.' Robin said. 'And if the transporter is constantly on it works as a two way road, the boys would be able to travel back out using it.'

'Not to mention the effect such a device might have long term, it could change the very atomic structure of anything in its path if left going to long.' Dexter pointed out.

'Mr Wayne you have been very quiet, have you any suggestions?' Professor Utonium asked Bruce Wayne who has sat silent through out the whole conversation.

'Unfortunately I have only one possible answer and that is not a pretty one.' Bruce Wayne said. 'I think these boys could only possibly be stopped by killing them.' This was met by shock and outrage from all the scientists.

'Bruce I am a doctor and I can not condone any idea that would take human life.' Doctor Kai said. 'And might I remind you killing these three boys would also kill three innocent children as well.'

'I don't like it any more then you do doctor but it is the only real answer we have right now.' Bruce managed to cut through the arguing scientists to be heard again. 'These Rowdy Ruff Boys can not be contained by anything we could come up with in a matter of days, and now that they know they have no limiting factors they will begin attacking again. These three have the devastating power of an army and I doubt they will stop after Townsville, they will move on to the next place and destroy that. I know if they were to reach Gotham city Batman would do all he could to stop them, even if that meant killing them. So you see they will be killed eventually, if we leave them alive they will just kill more innocent lives. I am afraid this is a case of the needs of the many over the needs of the few. But if there are any better ideas I will be more the glad to work on them.' Bruce sat back and waited for anyone to speak; no one had an answer they could give.

'I tell you now I will not let anyone kill those boys, we are not murders we are scientists!' Professor Utonium was the only one to speak up and even this took some time. 'Now I suggest we all get to work on a workable solution. If anyone comes up with anything I will be wearing a communicator watch on the frequency of ninety-three point seven oh that is nine three point seven zero. Any time, night or day if you have even a possible answer call me and we can start work on it. Now I bid you all good day.' One by one the screens went blank as the men and women on them said their good byes, only Bruce Wayne remained at the end.

'Professor I hope you understand my position, I have to think of the greater good.' Bruce said. 'I am not asking those boys to commit suicide, but I also can not let their counterparts run loose.'

'I understand Mr Wayne, but I hope you understand my position.' The Professor responded. 'Those boys have as much right to live as you or I. I will not let their lives be wasted so needlessly.' Bruce said nothing but gave a small nod before his screen went blank leaving the Professor alone.

* * *

'Well?' Blossom asked when Professor Utonium came out of his laboratory.

'Well what?' Professor Utonium asked Blossom.

'What did you all come up with?' Blossom asked impatiently. 'You were in there for hours; you must have some ideas on what we can do to stop the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys.'

'Oh well yes we have all been working very hard on the Rowdy Ruff problem and there are a few ideas been tossed back and forth.' The Professor said. 'We have nothing to solid yet but everyone is working as hard as they can to come up with something we can use. I am sure with all the people I have working on this that we will have at least a stop gap measure before you know it. I am even wearing my communicator watch in case anyone comes up with something, so we can get strait to work on it.' The Professor lifted up his wrist to show the watch like device strapped there.

'I got a question, why in the heck have the evil Ruff's not attacked yet if they know we cant fight back?' Butch asked as he limped into the room, his leg was getting better now and soon he would be able to walk normally.

'I think you maybe the reason for it.' Professor Utonium answered; glad to be away from the subject of actually stopping the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys. 'If you are still not healed up I assume their Blaze is also still suffering after the last fight he had with you and the girls. Brimstone no doubt wants his team at full strength before he makes his final move.'

'So we are in endgame then.' Blossom thought out loud.

'Well Brimstone may think we are but I think we have a few surprises left to keep the game going.' Professor Utonium said, unsure if he was lying or telling the truth to Blossom. 'Blossom why is the bottom of your dress damp?' He asked when he noticed that Blossom's dress was damp.

'Erm, it's nothing Professor… I will just go and change.' Blossom said as she ran up the stairs and went into her room to change.

* * *

It has been three days since the Professor had his meeting and not a single one has come back with anything useful. The whole city has been put on a high alert as they wait for the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys to make their move. Butch has healed completely and now no one knows why the Rowdy Ruff Boys have not attacked. Everyone waits, living in fear of the inevitable attack. But life has gone on; people go about their days as if there was no shadow of death hovering constantly above them. School opened as usual and classes were held, but during them most people could not help but stare at the Power Puff Girls hotline, expecting it to ring at any time.

The Power Puff Girls and Rowdy Ruff Boys were also starting to feel the strain of waiting for either the evil Rowdy's to attack or for the Professor and his team to come up with plan to stop them. Butch and Buttercup sparred almost constantly, keeping the training room levels at hardcore until they both collapsed from exhaustion. Brick and Blossom worked on strategies and tactics, trying to make them perfect and usually ending the day arguing over whom was right about what they should do. Bubbles and Boomer spent most of their time together, trying to keep their minds off what was going on around them. It could be said that during this time the two started to fall in love, but they were too young to see it.

The waiting ended on the third day, at four thirty Pm two miles south-west of the town centre. The clouds had become black as a storm started; the rain had just touched the earth when three boys walked out into the street.

'Hear me Townsville; hear the voice of your God!' Brimstone shouted out across the city. 'The time has come to end it, by tonight there will be only one team left alive. Either the Rowdy Ruff Boys or the Power Puff Girls! Blaze, Blaster get the girls attention.' At this command the two other Ruff's started to attack the city, using their hand blasts to destroy the buildings around them and kill anyone that caught their eye. The endgame had begun.

* * *

When the hotline rang the tension through the Utonium home became so thick that not even a knife could cut through it. The moment they had been waiting for was here, (do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee). No one moved for three rings, they all just looked at the phone, as if that might stop its ringing and save them from the fate that lay in wait. Eventually Blossom broke from her paralysis and answered the phone.

'Power Puff Girls.' Blossom said with hardly any conviction.

'Blossom they are attacking.' The mayor said as if this sentence was all that was needed, and it was.

'I understand mayor we are on it.' Blossom said hanging up the phone and looking at her sisters.

'They have finally made their move.' Buttercup said as she crossed her arms. 'About time, all this waiting was making me nervous.'

'Professor if you have any plans now is the time to share them with us; we have to fight them now.' Blossom said to Professor Utonium.

'We have nothing yet, but everyone is still working on the problem.' Professor Utonium said looking down at the communicator watch which was still as dead as when he first put it on.

'Then we have to go a buy some time.' Blossom said. 'Bubbles, Buttercup its time for us to go.' Blossom said to Buttercup and Bubbles.

'Hey what about us?' Brick said. 'We are coming to help you to.'

'No you are not Brick.' Blossom said firmly. 'You can't fight without hurting yourselves, you would only hinder us. You and your brothers are to stay here with the Professor and wait for a new plan.'

'You can't fight the evil Ruff's alone, they creamed you last time!' Butch shouted. 'We are not as strong as them but we can at least tip the balance to your favour.'

'No you can't, every time to make a hit you would only hurt yourselves.' Blossom said calmly. 'That's why we won't hurt them; we will only keep their attention to buy time for the Professor.'

'But if you don't fight back then you won't stand a chance against them.' Boomer said. 'They will kill you.' He had tears in his eyes as he thought of the girls been killed.

'We can't let them destroy the city; we can't fight them with out hurting you so our only option is to keep them busy.' Blossom said. 'I have confidence in the Professor and his team coming up with a solution before we get into too much trouble.'

'At least let us come as supports, if you need help we can act right away.' Brick said. 'And if we bring the Professor with us then any plan he comes up with we can enact right away.'

'I don't know, it could be dangerous having you there.' Blossoms said. 'Brimstone might use it to his advantage, using you as human shields.'

'You all ready said you won't attack them and we promise not to do anything unless you give the order to us.' Brick said.

'Oh alright you guys can come but you have to stay with the professor and out of sight.' Blossom finally caved in to the boys, she knew it was an argument she would never win. The three boys all promised to do as she told them and keep back unless ordered to do otherwise. With this done the girls flew ahead to fight the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys while the Professor was carried by the good Ruff's to the battlefield.

* * *

Brimstone watched as his brothers destroyed the city around them, the rain running off his hat in a thick sheet. He hardly noticed the weather; all he was focused on was what was going on around him. Blaster was destroying any building that got into his range while Blaze chased after the people who fled for safety. Brimstone did not want to dirt his hands on such weaklings; all he cared for was the Power Puff Girls and his revenge on them. He also had a worry in his mind, one that hid at the very deepest part of his thoughts, which was if he failed this time he would answer to the laughing man and that was something he feared more then any other way of dieing.

'Come out Power Puff's, we all must die someday.' He muttered under his breath, he was growing impatient waiting for the girls. What if they saw fighting was futile and stayed in hiding until they could come up with some trick to defeat him? He need not have worried; the Power Puff Girls would never sacrifice so many lives even if it was the smartest thing to do.

'Brimstone stop this right now!' Blossom yelled out as three streaks of colour stopped over the heads of the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys.

'Well it's about time you three sissies showed up.' Brimstone made a wave with his hand to which Blaster and Blaze stopped their attack and joined their brother's side. 'I hope you like the back drop we created for out little fight, I was going for post-apocalyptic I even waited for it to rain just for the occasion.' Brimstone said not noticing Blaster and Blaze shiver, he sounded too much like the laughing man for their comfort.

'You waited three days just so it would rain when we fight?' Buttercup said looking dumbfounded.

'Well I always had a flare for the dramatic, and this storm does make the perfect back drop for your demise.' Brimstone said with a sly side smile across his face.

'Where are your boyfriends?' Blaze asked. 'Off picking flowers to put in your hair?' This caused Blaster to double over laughing while Buttercup started shouting abuse at Blaze.

'They are here, waiting for the right moment to help us beat you.' Blossom said.

'Oh I doubt that, they can't do anything to hurt us and neither can you.' Brimstone said. 'So I will make you a deal, give in to me and I promise that your deaths with be quick and painless.'

'We would never surrender to you!' Buttercup shouted at Brimstone.

'THEN…YOU…SHALL...SUFFER!' Brimstone yelled out before he attacked Blossom with a driving punch to the face. Blossom had no time to block the attack and so was hit by its full force, he head snapped back as she flew up into the air like a rocket with Brimstone chasing after her.

'You take green girl and I will teach blue a lesson or two.' Blaze said to Blaster as he attacked Bubbles with a static bolt from his hands. The bolt missed Bubbles as she strafed to the left but Blaze was after he in seconds.

'Ok Butterbutt lets fight.' Blaster had been ordered by Brimstone to fight Buttercup and not Bubbles because of the last fight they had. Buttercup knew that winding Blaze up made him act like an idiot in a fight and so Brimstone had decided to avoid that possibility this time.

'My name is Buttercup!' Buttercup rushed at Blaster and at the last second remembered that if she did hit him Boomer would also be hurt. She tried to pull away but her speed was too great and instead she ran strait into Blasters waiting fist. Pain exploded in her belly as Blaster twisted his fist round to cause as much damage as possible. All the air in Buttercup's lungs shot out in one loud 'ouf' sound, leaving her open for Blaster to continue attacking. The blue Rowdy let go of Buttercup and she feel to her knees gasping for air, she never saw Blaster's foot shoot up and kick her in the face. Buttercup fell backwards hitting her head on the hard ground before Blaster dropped down to his knees to drive his elbow into her all ready stinging gut.

'Girls are such sissies.' Blaster said as he stood up. 'Your not even trying to fight me, afraid of hurting little Boomer?' Blaster kicked Buttercup in the ribs spinning her over and onto her stomach. The Ruff was not done, he could have killed her there and then but was just enjoying this too much and Brimstone had ordered they would all die at the same time. So instead of making a finishing move Blaster picked up a large piece of the road and dropped it on top of Buttercup. The black tarmac shattered when it hit and covered Buttercup completely.

'You were more fun the first time round Buttercup.' Blaster said to the rubble. 'At least then you fought back, this is just too easy.' Blaster fired his eye beams to blow away the rubble and reveal Buttercup once more. The Green Power Puff was clawing her way back to standing up when the red beams struck her sending her flat once again.

'This fight was over before it even started… is that possible?' Blaster said to himself, now to confused to carry on fighting. Not that it mattered anymore; Buttercup could not fight back no matter how much she wanted to.

* * *

'Let go!' Bubbles said as Blaze grabbed onto her pigtails.

'Not a chance!' Blaze said as he pulled on Bubbles hair as hard as he could, putting one knee into her spine as he pulled back. Bubbles screamed with pain as her back arched back as far as it could, digging deeper into Blaze's knee. The tears fell for her eyes as her hair started to come out of her skull while Blaze just smiled. Bubbles was about to go bald when she noticed Blaze's grip had loosened just enough for her to escape. She flipped over, slipping out of the grip on her feet held by Blaze's other leg, and thus she was able to relieve the pull on her hair. When Bubbles was just above Blaze's head she twisted round as quickly as she could, in return she got one last hard tug on her hair and then escaped. Blaze's arms twisted round each other and caused him to lose the grip he had on Bubbles hair. Bubbles was now free, minus a few hairs and still feeling the pain throb though her head.

'You wont get away from me that easy girly.' Blaze span round and kicked Bubbles in the head as she tried to clear the tears from her eyes. As soon as he hit Bubbles Blaze put out both hands and fired a hand beam of green energy which hit Bubbles in the side of her chest. Bubbles screamed again as the burning pain flared in both her head and her chest. Blaze just laughed as he watched Bubbles try to get away from him.

'I owe you for the fight we had a few days ago sissy so don't think I a letting you go.' Blaze flew in front on Bubbles and grabbed her by the shoulders, squeezing his fingers deeply in to the flesh and bone there. Bubbles did not scream this time but her face contorted into an expression of anguish. Blaze kneed her in the solar plexuses as hard as he could and this time Bubbles did scream out which only encouraged Blaze to keep attacking her. He shot up with the other knee and hit in the same place relishing the scream that resulted from the hit. He repeated this over and over again, hitting with one knee and then the other, laughing as Bubbles screamed.

* * *

'So here we stand and here we fall.' Brimstone said as he looked down on Blossom. 'And this time when the fight is over there will be no last minute saves, either you will die or I will. In the end there can be only one Blossom, and I doubt its going to be you.'

'You talk too much Brimstone.' Blossom said as she slowly stepped back, trying to keep a good distance away from him.

'Well then the time for talk has ended.' Brimstone flew head first at Blossom. 'Have at you Blossom!' He nearly made the hit when Blossom quickly sidestepped, she could have planted a heavy kick on his exposed back now if she wanted but of course she could not hurt him. Blossom instead of attacking, dashed backwards and up into the air where she would have more room to dodge Brimstones attacks.

'Running will do you no good Power Puff!' Brimstone landed on his feet and then jumped at Blossom with all his force, coming back to try and spear her again. Brimstone once more missed as Blossom flew higher and out of the way of his spearing attack. Brimstone shouted out a wordless scream of anger and frustration as he turned in mid air and fired a barrage of eye beams. The red laser flew out of his eyes aimed for Blossom, but the pink Puff simply weaved in and out of the beams not getting a single scratch on her.

'What's wrong Brimstone?' Blossom said as she dodged the final red beam of light. 'Didn't you see I would put up a good defence, or are you slipping that badly?' Blossom knew she had to keep him from thinking strait, if she could do that he would not use strategy. Brimstone was not as reckless as Blaze, but he did lose his cool and in doing so lost his best chance of taking the fight as easily as he had hoped. Brimstone attacked Blossom with a series of wild attacks, none of which he thought through and so Blossom was able to dodge each and everyone. He attacked with everything in his arsenal, flame breath to simple kicks and punches and they all failed to even touch Blossom.

'Why won't you die?' Brimstone asked as Blossom flipped over his head to avoid another hand blast.

'Need a hand bro?' Blaster said as he arrived next to Brimstone. 'I dealt with green girl just like you asked, and Blaze finished the blue sissy off in record time. They are both tied up just how you asked me to…' Blaster was surprised as Brimstone grabbed him round the neck and pulled him against his chest like a human shield. Brimstone put his free hand behind his jacket and pulled out a large hunting knife he had hidden there. He put the tip of the knife against Blasters neck and looked right at Blossom.

'Surrender to me now or I will run this knife through his neck.' Brimstone pushed the blade in a little to cause a small puncture in Blaster's neck, just to prove he knife could do it.

'You wouldn't kill your own brother!?' Blossom said in disbelief as she saw how scared Blaster looked.

'I would if it gained what I want.' Brimstone said with out a hint of a lie in his voice. 'And if he dies so does your precious Boomer, so do you give in?'

'Brimstone what are you doing?' Blaster asked as his brother pushed the knife deeper into his neck.

'Sorry Blaster but you will have to die for me, I will miss you.' Brimstone was about to push the knife all the way through his brothers neck when Blossom shouted out.

'Stop I give in!' Blossom could not believe even Brimstone could be so evil as to kill his own brother just to win, but she could not risk Boomer's life as well as Blaster's.

'Good girl, now turn around and put your hands over your head.' Brimstone said not taking the knife away from Blaster's throat. Blossom for a moment did nothing, but then did turn around as Brimstone had told her to do. As soon as her hands were on her head Brimstone move with such speed it was frightening. He let go of Blaster and flew strait into Blossom gabbing both her arms and putting her in an inescapable arm lock.

'Brimstone you were going to kill me…' Blaster said as he put one hand to his neck where blood slowly trickled out of the hole Brimstone had made.

'Relax I was just bluffing, I would never kill you bro.' Brimstone said, and with every word he lied. 'Now Blossom its time to show you both the mercy and wrath of your God.' Brimstone pulled Blossom down to the surface and dragged her to where her sisters were. Both Bubbles and Buttercup were fully awake if a bit battered and bruised, and both were tied to metal posts in the road.

'Brimstone, I tied them up real tight just like you said.' Blaze said. 'And those posts are pushed down so far they will never come out.' Blaze noticed Blaster holding his neck and decided to keep his mouth shut until Brimstone was out of hearing range.

'Perfect.' Brimstone said to Blaze, and then to Blossom he said. 'I am now going to show you my mercy; I am going to let you go. That's not a lie, or a joke I really am letting you go as free as a bird. I won't go looking for you; I will let you live the rest of your days as you see fit Blossom. However, your sisters must be punished or else people may think I am soft. I will kill both of them, but as I said I will spare your life. But there is always a choice is there not Blossom? They are tied tight, knots that would make the boy scouts proud, if you wanted you could try to untie them and save them both. But I tell you if you do you won't have enough time, you all will die when we attack. If how ever when I let you go you run, well only two Power Puff Girls need die today. You have three seconds after I release you to chose, save your life or die saving trying to save you sisters.' Brimstone then took his hands of Blossom and flew up into the sky with his two brothers. Blossom did not hesitate to run to her sisters to begin trying to untie them.

'No Blossom you escape!' Bubbles said when she saw Blossom run round to the knots and begin trying to undo them.

'There no point in us all dieing here.' Buttercup said.

'I am not leaving you here!' Blossom said as she struggled with the knots Blaze had put in the metal ropes.

'Such heroic nonsense.' Brimstone said as he saw Blossom do just as he thought she would do, attempt the impossible and go for her sisters.

'One.' Blaster said.

'Two.' Blaze said.

'Three' Brimstone said, and next came death.

* * *

The whole city watched the fight; they came out of their home and stood in the streets to see it just as they had done when the Rowdy Ruff Boys had first appeared two years ago. They did not hide this time, for even they knew if the girls failed then there would be no safe place for them. It was in this crowd that Professor Utonium and the good Rowdy Ruff Boys stood watching the fight. The Professor had his eyes dancing from his communicator to the fight, as he waited for someone to call and save them all. The three boys watched the fight with a mix of feelings. Brick watched Blossom dodging Brimstone's attacks and felt pride; she was beating him with a superior strategy they had both worked on. Butch watched with respect for Buttercup's abilities and a feeling of agitation as he desperately wished to prove himself against Blaze. Boomer watched with horror and a coldness in his heart, Boomer was about to fly and help Bubbles when he saw Blaze pull her hair but Brick held him back. Boomer gave him a pleading look but Brick would not let him go, they had promised.

'No now Buttercup is down!' Some one from the crowd shouted as they saw Blaster dragging Buttercup over to an empty street.

'And Blaze just defeated Bubbles.' Another faceless voice shouted out as Blaze flew over to the same place as Blaster carrying both Bubbles and two large metal poles as long as skyscrapers. They all watched as Blaster and Blaze proceeded to tie the girls to the poles driven deep into the earth. Now the only hope was with Blossom, who so far seemed to be doing well against Brimstone.

'Professor they are running out of time, we need a plan now.' Brick said as he watched Blossom fighting with Brimstone.

'I know.' The Professor pushed a button on his watch and spoke into it. 'This is Professor Utonium if anyone has any ideas, anything at all please respond, we have no more time left we need an answer now!' All he got in response was the same dark screen; even though all of the team were working on the problem none had an answer.

'Ouch!' Boomer said as he put a hand to his neck where a small puncture had appeared. The Professor looked up from his watch to see Brimstone was holding his own brother hostage against Blossom.

'My babies!' The professor shouted as he saw Blossom surrender to Brimstone, that meant all the girls had lost, time was up and the game was over.

'Brimstone is going to kill them all, and no one can stop him.' Brick said through clenched teeth. 'No one but us.' Brick looked at his brothers who were watching as Brimstone toyed with Blossom's heart before he planned to kill her.

'Brick?' Butch asked when he saw the look in Brick's eyes.

'We can't stand here and let them win, no matter the cost.' Brick said. 'I won't order either of you to help me, if you want to live I understand but I am going to stop Brimstone one way or the other.'

'So we finally get to see some action, well you can count me in Brick.' Butch said smiling. 'I was getting bored standing here watching anyhow.'

'Boomer, what is your choice?' Brick asked Boomer who was looking up at the sky. He could see nothing but the never ending black rain clouds in that sky.

'If we don't stop them there will be nothing worth living for Brick.' Boomer said. Brick nodded as he got the answer he had expected from Boomer.

'Professor tell the girls we are sorry but we could not keep our promise to stay back.' Brick said to Professor Utonium as he and his brother moved into a clear space. 'Thank you for your kindness.'

'No wait there has to be another way!' Professor Utonium said running towards the boys, but they all flew from the spot and into the sky before he could take more then two steps.

'Ok boys lets give it everything we have, our ultimate attack!' Brick said as they flew in formation towards their evil counter parts.

'Oh yeah I have been dieing to try this move out!' Butch said as he moved to the front of the formation. 'DARK!'

'DRAGON!' Boomer shouted as he moved behind Butch.

'DRIVE!' Brick shouted out as the three began to twist round in a spiral around each other, their energy trails mingling around in a long spike of energy. For a moment they stayed the same colours as usual, but then they merged into each other and became black. No longer was the energy trail a shapeless mass, but now looked just like a giant Chinese dragon. The dark dragon moved like a snake in the air as he flew strait for the three evil Rowdy Ruff Boys, its giant mouth opening up to devour them all before they could make their final strike on the Power Puff Girls.

'What the hell is that thing!?' Blaze shouted as he saw the Dark Dragon about to drive right it to them. Blaster looked at is in a wordless fear, and Brimstone managed to say his last words on earth.

'Oh shit.'

* * *

The city watched from bellow as what appeared to be a mythical creature soared through the air and opened its giant maw to swallow the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys. The three boys disappeared inside of the dragon's mouth and the beast closed it, sealing them inside its body. The dragon coiled itself into an enormous knot and gave one final roar that pierced through to the heavens. Then the black became white in a final explosion, a soundless orb of energy the filled the sky. It was when the dragon exploded that Blossom managed to free her sisters, just in time to see the end of the fight. The white orb of light was so vast it seemed to cover the size of the city, just missing its buildings by a few inches. Everyone watched in awe, it was truly a sight to be seen something so beautiful hovering above them, then it was gone.

Six limp bodies plummeted from the sky, three to the left and three to the right, soundless as the explosion that caused their fall. The Rowdy Ruff Boys hit the ground like stones; none moved or showed any other signs of life. The Power Puff Girls saw them and flew as fast as they could to the sides of the good Rowdy Ruff Boys. Professor Utonium pushed his way through the crowd and to the evil ruff's bodies, simply because they were closest to him. The Professor checked each boy in turn, pulse and eyes and came to the same conclusion for all of them. They were dieing, and there was nothing that he could do to stop it. He looked up at the girls and just shook his head, feeling his heart growing heavy while the citizens of Townsville made a circle around them all.

Butch was the first to recover his consciousness; he could no longer see anything and felt weaker then he had ever felt in his life. Yet some how he knew Buttercup was beside him, holding his head up while blood trickled out of his mouth and nose.

'How did we do?' He managed to ask in a voice so quiet and weak it brought tears to even Buttercup's eyes, the strong and proud Butch reduced to this.

'Not bad, for a boy.' Buttercup said trying not to sound as sad as she felt.

'Heh, you didn't do to bad yourself… for a girl.' These were his final words to Buttercup.

Boomer was been held tightly by Bubbles, he could not feel a thing wrong with him yet his body was ruined. He managed to force his eyes open and look at Bubbles who was weeping as she clutched his head. Looking up to the sky Boomer could see the rain clouds had been blasted away by the Dark Dragon Drive, and now the fluffy white clouds had come back.

'Hey look the clouds came back.' Boomer said using all the strength he had left to point at them. 'That one looks like a house, and that looks like a dog if you look hard enough… hey that one looks like me, can you see it Bubbles?' Boomer's eyes had failed him; there was no cloud that looked like him in the sky yet Bubbles answered him.

'Yes Boomer I can see it.' It was hard to speak through the tears, but if she did not speak now she never would get the chance again.

'Its…pretty.' Boomer said as he smiled looking up at the clouds that slowly darkened away to nothing.

Brick opened his eyes and could see Blossom kneeling beside him also crying.

'Sorry to break our promise Blossom, but it was the only way.' Brick said as he felt himself slipping away, more then anything right then he wanted to sleep but he knew if he did close his eyes they would never open.

'Brick you can't die, you promised me.' Blossom said. 'Who will argue tactics with me, steal my comic books and laugh at me when I act too bossy?' Brick made a chocked laugh at this which hurt his whole body, yet he was glad he could laugh right up until the end.

'Sorry Blossom, I got to go.' He said before closing his eyes and letting the darkness wash over him.

The three Rowdy Ruff Boys closed their eyes and became completely limp in the girls arms as they died. The Evil Ruff's were alone, never to have woken from the attack that ended their lives. When their hearts finally stopped beating the evil Rowdy Ruff Boys bodies just seemed to fade away into nothing leaving only their clothes behind. As soon as they had vanished the good Rowdy Ruff's did the same, their bodies going transparent and then disappearing into thin air. They left nothing behind but the clothes they had been wearing and three mourning Power Puff Girls.

So it was that the Rowdy Ruff Boys saved the day one last time, the price of balance paid in full, paid in blood.

**End**

(Authors note: I will be posting an authors note after this, about a week for now, to thank those who reviewed the story and to answer any questions.)


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